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UNDER THE OLD ARCH AT THESSALONICA. 



RAMBLES 



IN 



THE OLD WORLD. 



BY 



MILTON S. TERRY, 



PROFESSOR IN GARRETT BIBLICAL INSTITUTE. 







.V 



^'^ APR 30 1894 . 



"■^r, 






6-^ 



CINCINNATI : CRANSTON & CURTS. 

NEW YORK: HUNT & EATON. 

1894. 



<3^ 



Copyright by 

CRANSTON & CURTS, 

1894. 



THE LIBRARY 
or CONGRESS 

WASHI NOTCH 



To 

WILLIAM H. COLVIN, Esq., 

my native Townsman, 

and the Generous Friend and Jovial Companion 

of many days 

on various seas and among strange peoples, 

Shis ©olume 

owes its being. 



CONTENTS. 



-♦- 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE. 

Crossing the Ocean, 7 

CHAPTER II. 
Bremen, 20 

CHAPTER III. 
BERI.IN, ■ 29 

CHAPTER IV. 
In German Universities, 39 

CHAPTER V. 
In Luther's Steps, 48 

CHAPTER VI. 

GWMPSES INTO NOTABI^E CiTlES, 63 

CHAPTER VII. 

CONSTANTINOPI^E AND THE GOI^DEN HORN, . . . I04 

CHAPTER VIII. 

A Journey into Greece, 120 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Page. 

Rambi.es in S1C11.Y, 142 

CHAPTER X. 
A Tour through ItaIvY, 153 

CHAPTER XI. 

SwiTZERIvAND AND THE Al,PS, 1 93 

CHAPTER XII. 
Paris, 209 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Up and Down the Rhine, 238 

CHAPTER XIV. 
In the Northi^and, 260 

CHAPTER XV. 
In the Netherlands, 272 

CHAPTER XVI. 
In ENGI.AND, 28S 

CHAPTER XVII. 

In IrEIvAND AND SCOTl^AND, 3II 



RfllABLE? IN THE OLD WORLD. 



(EFrapfBr I. 

CROSSING THE OCEAN. 

Lives there a man with soul so dead, 
Who never to himself hath said, 
I'll go abroad some day? 

ES, there are doubtless many such souls. 
There are hundreds in every land who 
have scarcely heard whether there be 
any country outside of the region in which 
they were born. There are others who know 
something, but think little and care less about 
foreign lands and peoples. But where is the 
young American, born and bred in the midst 
of the life and bustle and common education 
of this New World, but has indulged the dream 
of foreign travel? The school-books of his 

7 




8 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

childhood beget in him a curiosity and ambi- 
tion to '' see the world." 

**His eye must see, his foot each spot must tread, 

Where sleeps the dust of earth's recorded dead ; 

Where rise the monuments of ancient time — 

Pillar and pyramid in age sublime ; 

The Pagan's temple, and the Churchman's tower; 

War's bloodiest plain, and Wisdom's greenest bower ; 

All that his wonder woke in schoolboy themes ; 

All that his fancy fired in youthful dreams. 

Where Socrates once taught he thirsts to stray 

Where Homer poured his everlasting la}^; 

From Virgil's tomb he longs to pluck one flower, 

By Avon's stream to live one moonlight hour; 

To pause where England garners up her great, 

And drop a patriot's tear to Milton's fate." 

We Americans have no lack in our own 
land of immense spaces and untrodden wastes. 
We need not travel abroad in hope of finding 
cataracts more wonderful than our Niagara, 
rivers more beautiful than the Hudson, or 
mightier than the '' Father of Waters." We 
will not look on hill-encompassed sheets of 
water more charming than Lake George ; 
mountains more picturesque than the Appa- 
lachian range, or more imposing than the 
Rockies; valleys more entrancing than Yo- 
semite ; and fountains and geysers to rival 



CROSSING THE OCEAN, 9 

those of the far-famed Yellowstone. But these 
enviable possessions do not keep the American 
at home. He wants to see things old as well 
as new\ Sometimes, it is true, we meet such 
a paragon of good sense as stoutly declares that 
he ''will see his own land first." He chides, 
with becoming grace, such foolish upstarts as 
spend their money for travel in the Old World 
before they have vSeen a twentieth part of their 
own country. He will not thus turn his back 
on ''the land of the free and the home of the 
brave" — not he. And in nineteen cases out 
of twenty the proprietors of such sound ideas 
never get beyond the circle of their native 
horizon. 

But I was foolish enough to think seriously 
of going abroad before seeing the half of "my 
ain countree." yhe thought stuck in my 
brain full many a year, and I might have gone 
and seen and returned a dozen times while I 
was thinking about it. But at last I started 
right up, said I would go at once, secured a 
passport, and packed my gripsack. Let no 
presumptuous woman say that leathern hand- 
trunk was not well arranged ! I was resolved 
that no cumbersome package should impede 
my progress through pestiferous custom-houses. 



lO RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

One suit of clothes must do duty for all occa- 
sions. *'If I must appear before the pope in 
a black dress-suit," said I, ''any hotel waiter 
will accommodate me with his own sleek swal- 
lowtail for the trifle of a franc." 

Far more important to me was the thought 
of where I was going and what I should see. 
The British Isles, of course; but, for various 
reasons, I resolved to leave them for the last 
part of my journey, after I had seen the Con- 
tinent of Europe and should be on my home- 
ward way. I resolved to take Germany first, 
and accomplish certain plans of study there ; 
then Switzerland and France and Belgium. 
But having traversed all these countries, and 
yet feeling strong desire to move on farther, I 
was permitted to go again through Germany, 
and then on to Vienna, and thence to Constan- 
tinople, and thence return by way of Greece 
and Sicily and Italy. From Venice it seemed 
to me good to proceed northward to Munich, 
and thence along the Rhine to Holland, and so 
on to Denmark and Sweden and Norway. 
Spain and Russia were in my plans ; but the 
former lay too far on one side of my route, and 
when I reached Sweden and thought to cross 
from Stockholm to St. Petersburg, I "got home- 



CROSSING THE OCEAN, II 

sick," and imagined that the bear-like Russians 
might do me much harm, and search my satch- 
els too closely, and so I easily persuaded my- 
self that it was time for me to ''get home and 
to work;" and so it came to pass. 

My reader will probably observe that, like 
most travelers, I went abroad to SHE 01.D 
THINGS. It was not to study human nature, 
or the problems of capital and labor, or com- 
merce and industrial arts, or even the manners 
and customs of foreign peoples. These can be 
learned at home to that extent that one scarcely 
cares to enlarge the vision. The chief inspira- 
tion of foreign travel is a desire to come into 
local contact with the remaining vestiges of 
ancient times ; to look on cities that repre- 
sent the history of a thousand years ; to tread 
the battle-fields which have been the scene of 
conflicts never to be lost from the world's 
memory. Old castles ; old cathedrals ; monu- 
ments gray with age or falling into ruin ; the 
masterpieces of human genius, wrought in 
stone and metal and on the canvas; the palaces 
and the prisons of past ages, — these are what 
the foreign tourist looks for, and will be men- 
tioned in the following pages, I fear, almost to 
the extent of tedious repetition. 



12 rambles in the old world. 

Getting Started. 

Fifteen hours from Chicago, including nine 
hours' sleep by the way, and I am roused up 
by the sound of many waters and the outcry 
of many voices, and, looking out of the window 
of my berth on the cars, behold! the mighty 
cataract of Niagara! It is the magnificent 
panorama from ''Falls View," on the Michigan 
Central Road. It seems as if we were lifted 
high in air, and looking down from above upon 
a thunderbolt of waters, cleaving the depths 
below. The train lingers a moment, as if the 
senseless cars were spellbound before the sym- 
bol of Omnipotence. Ten hours more on the 
Eastward train, and I find myself in Albany, 
amid familiar scenes. This was the great city 
of my boyhood — the queen city, the pearl and 
crown of cities; for nothing to my fancy then 
was so mighty and magnificent among cities 
as the capital of the Empire State. Here is 
the very same old corner where my father and 
my older brothers came with the farm produce, 
and stood from dewy morn till dusky eve ''sell- 
ing out." How I exulted when I was per- 
mitted to "go along," and witness the day's 
operations ! Here is the same old hotel where 



CROSSING THE OCEAN, 1 3 

we Stopped to feed the horses. I recognized 
some of the same old signs over the stores. 
Surely, Albany has changed less in thirty years 
than Chicago in five. 

A few hours more and I enter our national 
metropolis. And then follow those numerous 
small experiences of ''getting ready to start." 
A huge and strong steamer of the North Ger- 
man Xloyd lyine agrees to take me, for one 
hundred dollars, direct from New York to Bre- 
men. I am to enjoy the freedom of the ship 
and all the rights, privileges, and powers of a 
"first-class passenger." I go on board, and 
banish all further cares. Promptly at the hour 
appointed, two tug-boats pulled us away from 
the wharf, and then the mighty engines of 
our steamer began to work, and we passed 
the proud statue of ''Liberty Enlighten- 
ing the World," and moved on through the 
Narrows, and out into "the mournful and 
misty Atlantic." 

Out on the Ocean. 

We were scarcely out of New York Harbor 
when the steward handed me two letters. How 
is this, thought I, that I should receive letters 
just as I am pushing out to sea? I opened and 



14 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

found them to be the kind and thoughtful 
device of my beloved colleagues, Professors 
Charles W. Bennett and Charles F. Bradley. 
How cheering, just as I sailed away from na- 
tive land, to feel assurance of deep friendship 
and loving S3^mpathy behind me, and to know 
that friends were wishing me abundance of 
happiness abroad and a safe return ! The ten- 
der mood produced by such tokens of affection 
was more unspeakable than the grandeur of 
the ocean. 

But new friends meet us in our travels, and 
many of the friendships thus formed are among 
the most beautiful as well as the most mem- 
orable of life. Can I ever forget the jovial 
group that regularly patronized one table of 
the noble steamer Trave? There were my 
two friends from Chicago, Mr. W. H. Colvin 
and son, with whom I had arranged to take 
the tour of a large part of Europe, and per- 
haps a short run into Asia. There was the 
imperturbable James E. Reynolds, of New 
York, who was bound always and everywhere 
to maintain that nothing of much account 
could come out of Chicago. There was our 
English military officer, who was ever read}^ 
to run over with laughter at a Yankee joke. 



CROSSING THE OCEAN, 1 5 

There was a well-traveled merchantman, who 
hailed from Java, and was always competent 
to make the most and best of any opportunity. 
He explained to his next neighbor the differ- 
ence between a man speaking at the telephone 
and one sitting unawares upon a pin. The 
one, he observed, says Hello! The other re- 
verses the order of the syllables ! Our English 
officer was greatly taken with the story of a 
clergyman whose scandalous habit of repeat- 
ing the superfluous pronoun he after all nouns, 
as if to give emphasis, once excited uproarious 
merriment in his congregation. He announced 
his text: "Your adversary, the devil, walketh 
about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may 
devour." In true orthodox style he then de- 
clared his threefold purpose to inquire: '' First, 
who, the devil, he is; second, where, the devil, 
he came from; and, third, what, the devil, he 
roared about!" Our friend was so deeply im- 
pressed with these remarkable divisions for a 
sermon that he actually out with his note-book 
and pencil, and carefully wrote them down ! 

It was noticeable that many passengers ab- 
sented themselves from table — after the first 
day. Even our generous New York Reynolds 
was known to miss four meals in one day ! 



1 6 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

But he assured us he had good reasons, one of 
which was that five meals in one day is un- 
American; and another, that he occupied the 
room of one of the officers of the steamer ! 

One could, if he desired, have coffee and 
rolls at an early hour. The regular breakfast 
came at eight o'clock, and consisted generally 
of (i) hominy or oatmeal; (2) beef-steak; (3) 
ham and eggs or liver and bacon; (4) cakes 
and syrup. The lunch was served at one 
o'clock, consisting of cold meats of all kinds 
and a great variety of relishes. The dinner 
was the great meal, served about five o'clock. 
The usual courses were (i) soup; (2) oysters 
on shell; (3) fish; (4) roast beef or lamb; 
(5) turkey, chicken, or duck ; (6) a meat-pie ; 
(7) some sort of pudding and sauce; (8) ice- 
cream and cake; (9) fruit, nuts, and coffee or 
tea. A late evening meal was also served to 
such as desired it. 

Our steamer furnished the usual sights and 
diversions of a sea-voyage. The livelong day, 
and late into the evening, one might see such 
as were covetous of ''sea-air" reclining on the 
open deck. Others were diligently "reading 
up " for their prospective journeys. Not a few 
amused themselves with various games — no- 



CROSSING THE OCEAN. 17 

tably whist. Some seemed to be forever walk- 
ing — "up-stairs, down-stairs, and in the ladies' 
chamber." The occasional sight of a sail afar 
on the ocean, or of a passing steamer, drew all 
eyes, and seemed for the moment to supply the 
place of the daily neWvSpaper. 

The reflecting mind will not fail to note 
the majesty of the ever-changing sea. I over- 
heard one person repeating, as he walked the 
deck and looked out over the broad expanse : 

"There's a wideness in God's mercy 
Like the wideness of the sea." 

Another repeated the words of Malcom: ''Oh, 

how many have found in these billows a grave ! 

How" many a gallant ship has sunk like lead 

in the mighty waters, where beauty and vigor, 

wealth and venerableness, learning and piety, 

find undistinguished graves!" 

I found myself quoting Byron, especially 

the stanza : 

"Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form 
Glasses itself in tempests ; in all time, 
Calm or convulsed — in breeze or gale or storm ; 
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 
Dark-heaving; boundless, endless, and sublime; 
The image of Eternity; the throne 
Of the Invisible ; even from out thy slime 
The monsters of the deep are made ; each zone 
Obeys thee ; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone." 

2 



1 8 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

On the morning of our eighth day at sea, I 
arose quite early, and looked out, and lo ! we 
were sailing along the southern coast of Eng- 
land. *' Land's End " stretched out before me, 
some six or eight miles away. All the day 
we kept those rocky shores in view ; and 
thought was busy in recalling the almost 
mythical stories of the ancient Britons, and 
the crossing of Julius Caesar from the coast of 
Gaul to subject that Ultima TJnde to the power 
of Rome. How the old Druid priests once 
ruled the superstitious tribes of this northern 
isle, and practiced their mysterious rites amid 
the dark recessess of the forests ! But after 
the Christian missionaries, St. Austin of Eng- 
land, St. Patrick of Ireland, and St. Colomba 
of Scotland — well called saints — had planted 
the cross upon the ruins of ancient supersti- 
tion, this marvelous island-empire rose rapidly 
to greatness, and now wields the scepter of 
a dominion far greater than that of ancient 
Rome. 

Our steamer stopped at Southampton, and 
landed the passengers e)i route for London. 
Then we again weighed anchor, and passed on 
through the Straits of Dover, and out upon 
the cold North Sea, On my first voyage over 



CROSSING THE OCEAN. 1 9 

these waters, our ship auchored, on a Friday 
night about ten o'clock, in the mouth of the 
Weser. The next morning, after an early 
breakfast, we were taken by a small steamboat 
to Bremerhaven, where we enjoyed our first 
experience of a foreign custom-house. So un- 
pretentious a hand-baggage aS that gripsack 
which I carried attracted no attention, and I 
caught the first train to Bremen, and arrived 
there about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, 
while many of my fellow-passengers, laden 
with huge trunks arid packages, were so long 
delayed at that ''high-tariff republican receipt 
of custom" that they failed to reach Bremen 
in time* to catch the much-desired train for 
Berlin that day. But though in ample time 
for the Schnellzug, I was in no such haste to 
reach the German capital, but had previously 
resolved to spend my first Sunday in Europe 
in the beautiful city which every student of 
Church history associates with the Christly 
ministry of "the holy Anschar." 



Or^apfEr 11 



G> I <^ 



1) 



BREMEN, 



r ET not my reader suppose that I am 

^ writing a guide-book of travel, nor let 

G)ciyjv^» him vainly imagine that I propose to 
tell him all I saw abroad. The thought of 
writing or publishing anything like a book of 
my travels did not seriously enter my mind. It 
is only now, after 3'ears have intervened, and 
upon looking over a number of letters sent to 
friends at home, that it has seemed good to 
me to write out the recollections of my vari- 
ous journeys. I recall many objects of inter- 
est as vividly to-day as when I stood, years 
ago, amid the very scenes; and while a few 
things have somewhat faded from memory, I 
note that others deepen with the lapse of time. 
Only those things which left a clear and per- 
manent impression do I now plan to write 
about. I shall not trouble my reader with de- 
tails of what I saw on my first visit, as distinct 
from what I saw on a second or a third. Some 
places I visited many times, and it is the total 

20 



BREMEN. 2 1 

impression which the several visits have left 
upon me that I plan to put on record. 

I speak of Bremen first for several reasons. 
That was the first foreign city that came in 
m}^ way, and for tjjat reason alone its sights 
probably made a deeper impression upon mem- 
ory than many others of even greater intrinsic 
interest and value. Being a Methodist, I could 
not but have special interest in the city w^hich 
was for a long ti^ie the headquarters of the 
Methodist mission- work in Germany, and where 
its publishing-house still remains. And, fur- 
thermore, I knew that Bremen w^as one of the 
old medieval cities, the foundations of which 
dated away back in the times of Charlemagne, 
or beyond ; whilst in commercial enterprise it 
ranks high among the modern business centers 
of the German Empire. 

One of the first things to attract the eye of 
the traveler is the long, winding boulevard 
which marks the boundary of the ancient cit3^ 
The beautiful walks are laid out on the site of 
the old ramparts, and the moat has been formed 
into a broad canal. The trees, the windmills, 
the bridges, the fine buildings on either side, 
and the occasional seats "for the repose of 
pilgrims," can not be easily forgotten. Never 



22 J^ AMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

shair I forget the picturesque Altmannshohe, at 
the southern end of this boulevard, where I 
vSat down under an inviting arbor overlooking 
the Weser, and watched the quiet waters and 
their various craft. The ^rt gallery near this 
place contains Leutze's famous painting of 
''Washington Crossing the Delaware." 

MOvSt visitors will naturall}^ be conducted 
first to the market-place as the chief center of 
interCvSt. Here are situated the Rathhaus, or 
Chamber of Council; the Cathedral; the Ex- 
change; and the Chamber of Commerce. In 
front of the Rathhaus rises the colossal Roland 
statue, believed to be the most famous of its 
kind existing. An air of m^^stery hangs 
around this huge symbolic work of art. The 
legend of Roland goes back to the eighth cen- 
tury, and connects with the wars of Charle- 
magne. It has been diffused in popular song 
and tradition among almost all the nations of 
Kurope, and medieval art has enshrined it in 
these so-called ''Roland statues." This gi- 
gantic figure holds a vSword in his right hand 
and a shield upon his left, while a severed hu- 
man head and hand lie at his feet. It is sup- 
posed to represent the liberty and judicial 
rights of the cit}^ where it stands. I noticed 



BREMEN, 23 

similar figures afterwards at Brandenburg, 
Magdeburg, and Halberstadt. The Rathhaus 
is particularly celebrated for its richly frescoed 
wine-cellars, in one of which are shown twelve 
large casks, called the ''Twelve Apostles,"con- 
taining wine made in the early part of the seven- 
teenth century. In one of these underground 
rooms the curious visitor, who will pay his 
guide a small fee, may see the place where 
the old burgomasters convened about a large 
center-table, and held their secret councils. 
Above the table, on the ceiling of the room, 
is painted the figure of a large red rose, whence 
originated the expression sub rosa for delibera- 
tions held in secret. In the great hall above 
are several objects of interest to the student 
of history and art. The stained-glass windows 
bear the names and escutcheons of the coun- 
selors of Bremen, and on the ceiling are me- 
dallion portraits of the German emperors from 
Charlemagne to Sigismund. 

I was particularly interested in the old ca- 
thedral, which has a choir-gallery in each end, 
and one of the most famous organs in all Eu- 
rope. Here I witnessed, for the first time, the 
form and order of service in the principal 
Protestant Churches of German3\ Here I was 



24 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. ■ 

shown into that curious vault known as the 
Bleikeller, where human bodies, some of which 
have lain there four hundred 3''ears, are ex- 
posed in open coffins. The body of one man, 
who was killed in a duel two hundred years 
ago, was so well preserved that the fatal wounds 
received in his arm and side w^ere still clearly 
traceable. The remarkable properties of this 
room are said to be owing to the melting of 
lead for the rOof w^hich was done here, and 
w^hich also gave to the vault the name of "the 
lead-cellar." This cathedral was begun in the 
eleventh century, and the Church of St. Ans- 
char, which stands about ten minutes' w^alk 
distant, is an edifice of the early part of the 
thirteenth century. In front of the latter I 
remember looking long and with tearful e^^e 
upon a work of art by Steinhauser. It repre- 
sents the holy Anschar in the act of liberating 
a pagan youth from the bondage of heathen- 
ism. The great apostle of the north, the im- 
personation of benignity, appears in the act of 
sprinkling the waters of baptism on the up- 
lifted face of a new convert, whose counte- 
nance seems to be radiant wath the light of 
heaven, while a yoke is falling from his shoul- 
der. In that symbolic group I saw a beautiful 



s 



BREMEN. 25 

ideal of the evangelization of the pagan 
world. 

My Methodist readers will be pleavSed to 
have me .say that I did not pass by our mis- 
sion-work in Bremen without careful observa- 
tion. Here came Dr. ly. S. Jacoby, in 1849, to 
open in the Fatherland a great religious move- 
ment, which has been going on with increas- 
ing interest and prosperity until this day. 
Here, for ten years, the annual meetings of 
the mission were held. Here, too, were organ- 
ized the Religious Publishing-house and the 
Mission Institute, the latter afterwards trans- 
ferred to Frankfort-on-the-Main. Strolling 
through Georg Strasse, on the day of my ar- 
rival in this city, I observed the fine building 
which bears the sign of the Methodist Tractat- 
Gesellschaft^ and at once walked in, and made 
myself at home. This same institution serves 
also as the German agency of the American 
and British Bible Societies. In the chapel I 
preached my first sermon in the land of lyUther. 
There was a large and attentive audience, and 
the fervor and piety of these German Method- 
ists would make the heart of John Wesle}^ 
"feel strangely warm" again. 

But if I linger longer in this delightful 



26 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

Bremen, I shall be in danger of referring to 
almost all I saw, and therefore I will move 
on to 

Hanover, 

the beautiful capital of the former kingdom of 
this name. Here one sees a notable combina- 
tion of the old and the new. Houses three 
and four hundred years old, with quaint orna- 
mentation peculiar to former times, are found 
in close connection with structures of modern 
style and taste. The student of philosophy 
will not fail to visit the house of Leibnitz, in 
Schmiede Strasse, No. lo, a stone building- 
more than two hundred years old. Its great 
size, its tile covering, and its highly orna- 
mented windows, combine to make it a most 
interesting vStud3^ The bones of the great 
philosopher repose in a church not far from 
this house beneath a marble slab which bears 
the simple inscription, Ossa Leibnitu, Not 
only was he the most profound philOvSopher of 
his day, but distinguished also as poet, histo- 
rian, theologian, jurist, naturalist, machinist, 
and mathematician. The world has rarel}' 
seen his equal in learning and versatility of 
genius. 



MAGDEBURG. 27 

In the Museum of Art and Science, and the 
neighboring Picture Gallery, one could spend 
days and weeks in the study of rich collections 
in the departments of natural history and art. 
But many would be more interested in follow- 
ing the ''Avenue of lyimes" out to the old pal- 
ace of the Guelphs, known as the Welfenschloss, 
and now converted into a polytechnic school. 
On, beyond this, extend the broad acres of the 
Schloss-Herrenhaicsen, where one may wander 
to his heart's content among fountains and gar- 
dens and statues and orangeries and palms and 
hot-hoUvSes. Here he may visit the mausoleum 
of King Ernest Augustus and his Queen Fred- 
erica. Here, too, are various collections of 
sculptures and paintings and national antiqui- 
ties. And this general feature prevails through- 
out all the chief cities of this German land. 
There seems to be no end of paintings and 
magnificent monuments of art. 

Magdkburg. 

Before proceeding to the German capital, I 
pause for awhile in famous old Magdeburg — 
famous for the memory of Otho the Great and 
his beloved Rditha, famous for its connection 
with the Hanseatic League, famous for its 



28 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

zealous promotion of the Protestant Reforma- 
tion, famous for its sufferings in the Thirty- 
3^ears' War, and famous for projecting that 
ponderous work on Church history forever to 
be known as the "Magdeburg Centuries." 
And that is all I propose to sa}^ about this old 
town, save that the magnificent cathedral is 
well worthy of a visit. Its wilderness of elab- 
orate workmanship, its gorgeous portal and 
lofty tower, are not easily forgotten. Within 
its vaults repose the great Emperor Otho I, 
and here is vshown a large chest used, some 
sa3% by the notorious Tetzel, while he Avas en- 
gaged in the sale of indulgences. I solemnl}' 
asked the sacristan, who showed me through 
these lower rooms, if that were indeed one of 
Tetzel's chests, and he shook his head in a 
contemptuous wa}^, and declared that was all a 
false tradition. 




(EfrapiBr III. 

BERLIN. 

Y first entrance into Berlin was at the 
eventide, and darkness covered the 
beautiful city before I was comfortably 
settled at the Hotel du Nord. On subsequent 
visits I stopped once at the immense Central 
Hotel, and another time at the elegant Kaiser- 
hof ; but I am bound to say that, for comfort 
and quiet, the more homelike Hotel du Nord, 
near the Emperor's palace on the Unter den 
Linden, w^as to me most satisfactory. Al- 
though it was after nine o'clock in the even- 
ing when I arrived there, I could not rest until 
I had traversed the far-famed Linden, said to 
be one of the finest vStreets in Europe. And 
the next morning I arose early, and, before 
many people were abroad, I again walked the 
length of that magnificent street from the 
SchloSvS-Briicke to the Brandenburger Thor. 
But how can any one write a worthy descrip- 
tion, or convey any adequate idea of their beauty 

to those who have never seen the lifelike marble 

29 



30 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

groups of symbolic statuary that adorn that 
palace bridge ! The first group presents a lit- 
tle boy becoming interested in the stories of 
great heroes; in the next two he appears as a 
pupil of Minerva, learning the UvSe of arms, 
and receiving them as a gift from her hand. 
The fourth group represents him as a con- 
queror crowned. The other four groups rep- 
resent the wounded warrior raised up and in- 
spired to undertake new deeds of daring, assisted 
by Minerva in the combat, and finally carried 
in triumph to Olympus by Iris, the swift mes- 
senger of the gods. 

The Brandenburg Gate is a broad and lofty 
propylseum, wdth five passage- wa3^s, the central 
one always guarded by a mounted sentry, and 
reserved for the sole use of the royal carriages. 

It is surmounted by a colossal chariot of 
victory, drawn by four noble steeds. During 
the dark period at the beginning of this cen- 
tury, when Berlin was occupied by the troops 
of Napoleon, this massive piece of statuary 
was taken to Paris, and, like the ancient ark of 
Israel, remained in exile there for many years. 
On its restoration in 1814, the horses' heads 
were made to face the east. In front of this 
imposing gateway lies the ParivSer Platz, w^here 



BERLIN, 3 1 

one may see the palaces of the French and 
the Russian embassies, of the State officers 
of education and religion, of Count Redern, 
and of Prince BKicher. Farther east is the 
Aquarium, containing a fine collection of fish 
and reptiles and birds and apes. The interior 
grottoes seem like underground caverns or 
passage-ways in the depths of the sea. 

But the center of greatest interest is at the 
opposite end of the I^inden. The palace of 
the late Emperor William, and the royal 
library around the corner; the splendid opera- 
house near by, and the Church of St. Hedwig 
just back of it, made to resemble the Pantheon 
at Rome; the statue of Frederick the Great, 
and the university buildings, with the marble 
statues of William and Alexander von Hum- 
boldt in front; the royal guard-house, and the 
arsenal, with its rich treasures of ancient and 
modern weapons of war, — are all within a 
stone's-throw of one standing in the midst of 
the area in which they are located. Across the 
bridge is the old royal palace, which has been 
in course of building, enlargement, and reno- 
vation for four hundred years, and is said to 
contain six hundred rooms. Germany — and, 
in fact, all Europe — abounds in palaces, and 



32 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

this one is a noteworthy representative of them 
all. Visitors are admitted and conducted from 
room to room, where there seems to be no end 
of portraits of kings and electors and princes 
and queens, splendid galleries of paintings, and 
costly decorations, and gorgeous wainscoting, 
and highly-polished inlaid floors. Here we are 
shown vSideboards of gold and silver plate; re- 
ception-rooms and dining-halls and throne- 
chambers and bridal-chambers. In one of these 
great rooms hangs the crystal chandelier under 
which Luther stood when he pleaded for liberty 
of thought before the Diet of Worms. There 
are glass-rooms and velvet-rooms and silk-rooms 
and silver-rooms. From some of the windows 
there are fine views out upon the Linden and 
other portions of the cit}^ The octagonal 
chapel of this palace is especially impressive. 
The dome is more than one hundred feet in 
height above the marble floor, the frescoes are 
rich and striking, four columns of yellow Egyp- 
tian marble support the altar, and the pulpit is 
of Carrara marble. On his first visit to such a 
royal palace one is oppressed with the prodigal 
display of wealth and power; and when he 
learns that all this wilderness of palace-apart- 
ments is rarely occupied, and that the empire 



BERLIN. 33 

has scores besides that are used for little else 
than public exhibition, whilst thousands of the 
toiling subjects of the reigning monarch have 
not where to lay their heads, he is prepared to 
hear of occasional earthquakes of anarchy and 
communism. 

AcrOvSS the open park, north of the old pal- 
ace, are the Royal Museums and the National 
Gallery. Here one might spend years and 
years in study of the vast and well-arranged 
collections of antiquities of all ages and na- 
tions; mural paintings and inimitable frescoes 
executed by distinguished masters; apartments 
and galleries laden with representative art- 
treasures from the hands of the great masters 
of all the early and later schools; collections 
of sculptures and casts and terra-cottas and 
coins and gems. Scarcely less interesting to 
some students are the collections illustrative of 
the life and acts of the Prussian rulers and 
their wives to be seen in the HohenzoUern 
Museum, some twenty minutes' walk distant. 
Here are a thousand relics and memorials of 
the Great Elector, and of all the Williams and 
Fredericks of his royal line. Here are delicate 
objects wrought by the hands, or else once in 
the service, of the idolized Queen Louise; also 

3 



34 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

like treasures of other famous queens. Here 
is the cradle that once rocked the Emperor 
William. Three rooms are filled with memo- 
rials of Frederick the Great, among which are 
the clothes he wore at various periods of his 
eventful life, and wax models of his form and 
face in life and in death. What an inspiration 
is this museum to the readers of Carlyle's '' Life 
of Frederick the Great!" ^ , - 

In another section of the city we visit the 
Industrial Museum, with its multitudinous fab- 
rics, and carvings, and plastic works, and casts, 
and vessels of pottery and of all sorts of met- 
als. And there is the Thiergarten, with its 
splendid monuments of art, its winding walks 
among the trees, its romantic drives, and beau- 
tiful sheets of water. Just beyond is the Zo- 
ological Garden, which lives in my memory 
yet as the finest collection of animals I saw 
anywhere in Europe. Perhaps that fact is due 
to the spell of first impressions. And what 
shall I say more ? For space fails me to speak 
of visits to the magnificent Rathhaus, and the 
old Nicholas Church, wherein repose the bones 
of Samuel Puffendorf, author of '' Law of Na- 
ture and of Nations ;" to the great synagogue, 
with its golden dome ; and the varied and im- 



BERLIN, 35 

posing display of architecture and art in and 
about the theater and churches of the so-called 
Schiller Platz. Can I forget those hours of 
strolling in the old cemeteries, and meditations 
beside the graves of Neander and Schleier- 
niacher, of Fichte and Hegel and Mendels- 
sohn? With what delight do I recall my tour 
to Tegel, the home and burial-place of the 
Humboldt brothers, where I wandered and 
mused the livelong summer day among the 
shady avenues of the inviting forest ; also, 
those repeated visits to Charlottenburg, and 
walks through the palace and the palace gar- 
den there ; and that quiet mausoleum, famed 
not less for Ranch's marble figures of Frederick 
William III and his beautiful Queen Louise 
than for being the grave of ro3^alty ; those nu- 
merous rides out to Potsdam, and tiresome yet 
tireless wanderings there, through churches, 
and palaces, and villas, and gardens, and foun- 
tains, and forests — not excepting the lofty out- 
look of the Pfingstberg, and the Eden-like 
beauty of BabeLsberg! All these live in mem- 
ory, like ineffaceable pictures of a lovely dream. 
I know some who would blame me if I failed 
to record my personal contact with several royal 
personages of the Fatherland. The aged Em- 



36 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

peror William I was in the habit of appearing, 
at a designated hour each day, at a window of 
his palace on the Linden. Great crowds gath- 
ered at that time to see him, and his guard, 
promptly at the hour, marched to the sound 
of music and vStationed themselves in front of 
the window. On my first day in Berlin I 
was among the crowd that gathered to look 
upon His Majesty. When he appeared, his 
face and form seemed so familiar that I felt 
myself standing in the presence of some old 
acquaintance. His portraits were so wide- 
spread, and so accurate, both in general ex- 
pression and in detail, that one w^ould recog- 
nize him anywhere. I utterly neglected to 
take off my hat, or take any part whatever in 
the enthusiastic greeting w^hich he received 
alike from citizens and soldiers ; and only 
after it was all over, and the Emperor had 
withdrawn from view^ did it occur to me 
how absurdly cool and unappreciative I had 
been in the presence of such honored roy- 
alty. I resolved to do better on future oc- 
casions ; but I little thought that I should so 
soon have a private audience with His Majest3^ 
Later in the afternoon of the same day I 
stopped on the sidewalk immediately below 



BERLIN. 37 

the window at which the Emperor had shown 
himself, and was looking up at the palace, and 
thinking of him as he appeared a few hours 
before, when lo ! there he stood, at that identical 
window, looking right down at me ! I quickly 
removed my hat, and bowed again and again, 
and waved my hand in greeting, and he 
graciously returned my salutation, and hon- 
ored me with the pleasant military wave of 
his hand. Of course I did not withdraw until 
after the Emperor did! But then I returned 
to my friends, and made my boast that I had 
enjoyed the honor of a private interview with 
the Kaiser. 

Not many days later, as I was walking in 
the Thiergarten, I was honored by a similar 
happy meeting with Bismarck. Many had 
told me that the great Chancellor was the most 
difficult man among all the famous personages 
of Berlin to see. One might visit the Reichs- 
tag day after day, and fail to get a sight of 
this lion-like man — ''the greatest statesman on 
the Continent." But it was my felicity to find 
him out riding. I recognized the familiar face 
as he approached, and, as in the case of the 
Emperor, ''I had him all to myself;" for he 
passed on horseback within twenty feet of me, 



38 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

and responded to my salutation with the usual 
military wave of the hand. It was my good 
fortune to meet him in the same place several 
times thereafter; for it was his custom to ride 
out on horseback in the afternoon, and to re- 
turn to his palace near the Thiergarten about 
five o'clock. 

It was also near this place that I had my 
only sight of Frederick, then Crown Prince of 
Germany. He was riding in an imperial car- 
riage, and approaching the Brandenburg Gate. 
No one was near me as his carriage passed 
within two or three rods of where I w^as stand- 
ing; and so, as in the other cases mentioned, it 
was my fortune to receive and respond to his 
graceful salutation. The young Prince Will- 
iam, who has since become the reigning Em- 
peror, was a familiar sight. I once rode in the 
same train with him from Berlin to Potsdam, 
and also met his wife, now^ the Empress Au- 
gusta Victoria, at a ''promenade concert" in 
the grounds of the palace of the Minister of 
War. Her beautiful form and graceful move- 
ments were the admiration of all observers. 
At this same lawn-party it was also my privi- 
lege to meet and converse with Count Andreas 
Bernstorff and the Countess Von Walderzee. 



{<::) 



(ttfjapfer IV. 

IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 

HE chief purpose of my first visit to 
j^ Europe was to hear lectures in the Uni- 
^^ versity of Berlin, and also to obtain, as 
far as practicable, an inside view of the spirit 
and methods of operation prevalent in several of 
the principal universities of Germany. These 
great institutions are quite unlike the schools 
and colleges of our own country, but are rather 
a combination of faculties of theology, law, 
medicine, and philosophy, and presuppose in 
the student a classical and literary training 
equivalent to what is usually required for grad- 
uation from our best colleges. The German 
universities are founded by the Government, 
the professors appointed and paid by the Gov- 
ernment, and the entire system is under the 
supervision and control of the public authority. 
In former times many of these institutions 
had no buildings, except, perhaps, that which 
contained the library. The professors were 
accustomed to provide their own lecture-rooms, 

39 



40 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

and generally met their classes at their own 
houses. At present, however, the great uni- 
versities have one or more public buildings, 
provided with suitable lecture-rooms, apparatus, 
and collections. The University of Berlin oc- 
cupies for this purpose the large palace which 
formerly belonged to Prince Henry, brother of 
Frederick the Great. The University of Stras- 
burg has one of the most beautiful buildings 
in Europe. Many others have public halls and 
edifices that compare favorably with the best 
of their kind. But no attempt is made in Ger- 
many, as in many American colleges, to provide 
dormitories and accommodations for students. 

Having obtained comfortable quarters in 
the German capital, I passed the customary 
forms of immatriculation in the university, and 
became a theological student, attending regu- 
larly the lectures of Professors Dillmann, Klein- 
ert, and Weiss. I had for many years been 
familiar with the published works of these dis- 
tinguished theologians, and it was an exquisite 
pleasure to see them face to face, listen to their 
expositions of the Scripture, and observe their 
style and method. 

Dillmann is a clear, cold, pavSsionless critic. 
He is pre-eminently a philologist, especially in 



IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 4 1 

Semitic languages. He has done more than 
any other man to supply the means for the sci- 
entific study of the remains of Ethiopic litera- 
ture, and is author of a Grammar, a Chrestom- 
athy, and a Lexicon of that language. He has 
also edited the original texts and made trans- 
lations of several Ethiopic works. His princi- 
pal contributions to exegetical theology are 
critical commentaries on the Pentateuch, Job, 
and Isaiah. During the semester of my at- 
tendance upon his lectures he gave a critical 
exposition of the Hebrew Psalter and an ex- 
tensive course on the Biblical theology of the 
Old Testament. He speaks in a low tone of 
voice, and without animation. He seems, most 
of the time, to have no consciousness of the 
presence of an audience, but talks right on, 
with closed eyes, except as he occasionally 
glances down on his manuscript, or turns to 
read and translate the Hebrew text on which 
he is commenting. 

Professor Kleinert is a man of fine physique 
and has a majestic voice. He speaks like a 
Roman orator, and seemed to me to take great 
delight in rolling out, ''in words of learned 
length and thundering sound," magnificent 
translations of the Hebrew prophets. I heard 



42 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

his exposition of Isaiah, chapters xiii-xxiii. 
These chapters he assigns to various authors, 
and maintains that later editorship threw them 
together in their present form, because of their 
similarity as oracles against heathen nations. 

The most popular professor in the theological 
faculty at Berlin, during my attendance there, 
was Dr. Bernhard Weiss, well known to Eng- 
lish and American readers by his works on the 
Life of Christ, New Testament Theology, and 
Introduction to the New Testament. In the 
delivery of his lectures he is full of enthusi- 
asm, and keeps his arms in continual motion. 
His eye-glasses are adjusted to his nose and 
then flung oflF again about six times in every 
ten minutes. A cheerful smile lights up his 
face most of the time, and when occasionally 
he concludes his refutation of some exposition 
or theory opposed to his own, he runs into an 
exultation of apparent good-humor, and seems 
to boil over with a magnetic glee, which com- 
municates itself to his hearers, and usually 
puts the whole class in a like delightful mood. 

The other members of the theological fac- 
ulty, whom it was my good fortune to hear at 
different times, were Drs. Kaftan, Steinmeyer, 
Lrommatzsch, Pfleiderer, and Strack. I occa- 



IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 43 

sionally heard Professor Vahlen, then rector 
of the university, who was lecturing daily on 
selections from the Greek poets ; also, Professor 
Steinthal, a sickly-looking, feeble-voiced man, 
who reminded me much of the late Dr. Ezra 
Abbot, of Boston. It was to me a great 
gratification to see and hear also the venerable 
Professor Mommsen, author of the well-known 
History of Rome, who lectured four times a 
week on Latin Epigraphy. 

I visited the Universities of Gottingen, Halle, 
lycipsic, Bonn, and Heidelberg, and heard sev- 
eral of the most distinguished professors in 

each. At Gottingen I heard Professor Duhm 

« 

one hour on the subject of Old Testament In- 
troduction. He was discussing the prophecies 
of Hosea, and maintaining that the marriages 
of the prophet described in the first and third 
chapters could not be understood as real and 
historical. I there saw and heard Professor 
Wiesinger, a venerable-appearing man, with a 
head very much like that of John C. Calhoun, 
but a voice as tender and gentle as a woman's. 
He was expounding the Synoptic Gospels, and 
had come to a discussion of the Sermon on 
the Mount. Most of the hour I heard him was 
given to a comparison of Matthew's and Luke's 



44 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

texts of the Lord's Prayer, and an explanation 
of the significance of certain words. Among 
other things, he maintained that '* our daily 
bread" means rather ''the morrow's bread ;" 
that is, food necessary for the immediate fu- 
ture. I also heard, at Gottingen, Professor 
Shultz on Old Testament Theology, and Pro- 
fessor De Lagarde on the Forty-second Psalm, 
and attended a seminary exercise in reading 
and translating the Hebrew text of Isaiah, 
conducted by the aged but vigorous Professor 
Bertheau. At Bonn I heard Professor Kamp- 
hausen on the sixteenth and seventeenth chap- 
ters of Genesis, and Professor Christlieb on 
the subject-matter of sermons as richly fur- 
nished by various possible methods of pre- 
senting the great facts and lessons of the 
Scriptures. At Heidelberg I heard Professor 
Merx discussing the vexed problems of the 
documents incorporated in the Book of Gene- 
sis, and showing what belonged to the Priest- 
Codex, what to the Prophetic Annalist, just 
where the older Elohist was discernible, and 
what had been added to them all by some un- 
known redactor. At Halle I listened to Pro- 
fessors Gloel and Eichhorn, both young men, 
apparently not over thirty years of age. At 



IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 45 

Leipsic it was my privilege to hear Franz and 
Friedrich Delitzsch, Luthardt, Guthe, Ryssel, 
and Caspar Rene Gregory. The last named 
is an American, who has spent many years in 
Germany, and acquired an enviable reputation 
as a New Testament critic and scholar. He 
was lecturing twice a week on the history and 
criticism of the Greek text of the New Testa- 
ment. I assumed sufficient boldness to approach 
him, after one of his lectures, and protest 
against his continuing as a teacher in Germany, 
where there is a surplus of critical scholars, 
when his native land was in need of many 
men of his ability and acquirements. I also 
obtained a personal interview with Professor 
Franz Delitzsch, and spent a most delightful 
evening with him, in company with several 
English and American gentlemen. He was 
then over seventy years of age, and just com- 
pleting the new edition of his Commentary on 
Genesis. In the lecture-room he spoke with a 
feeble voice and with great moderation, but 
had no lack of hearers. Unlike most German 
professors, he cultivated personal acquaintance 
with his pupils, and welcomed them to his 
home. 

In all these universities I found the meth- 



46 



RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 



ods of instruction notably uniform. The pro- 
fessor usually enters the lecture-room about 
fifteen minutes after the hour, and so the lec- 
ture is about forty-five minutes long. Nearly 
every student is provided with a note-book 
and writing material, and aims to take down 
the lecture as fully as possible. If he has the 
instinct of a scholar and an ambition to excel, 
he will improve his leisure hours in private 
research, and use the lectures he hears as a 
guide to his own further study. He will make 
himself familiar with the great library, and ac- 
quaint himself with the literature to which the 
lecturer refers. At the end of three or four 
years he presents himself for a degree, and 
submits to such examination as the faculty di- 
rects. His Anmelditngsbuch must show what 
lectures he has attended, and he is expected to 
present a written thesis and be prepared for 
such discussion of it as his judges may require. 
After he obtains his degree, he may seek oppor- 
tunities of giving private lectures and instruc- 
tion, and thus the way usually opens to an ap- 
pointment — first, as ''extraordinary professor;" 
and then, if he command attention and show 
distinguished ability and learning, to the high 
position of ''ordinary profCvSsor." 



IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 47 

The German university system has pro- 
duced many great scholars, and is of special 
value to those who seek to become proficient 
in some chosen field of study. But the work 
of individual discipline and culture is not the 
chief purpose of these great institutions of 
learning. That purpose is, rather, to furnish 
opportunities, facilities, and inspiration for 
original research in the several departments of 
human learning. 



(EfjaptBr V. 

IN LUTHER'S STEPS. 



7HERE is no hero's name more dear to 
^J^^ the heart of Protestant Germany than 
^^ that of Martin Luther. In proportion 
as one is interested in his Hfe and work, will 
he visit with enthusiasm the places made fa- 
mous by his presence, and the German people 
display their honor to his memory by marking 
such places with some suitable monument or 
inscription. Even the house w^here his father 
lived at Mansfield bears the inscription, ''J. L., 
1530," and the people of that old town still 
point with pride to the school-house to which 
Martin was taken when a little child. The 
tender father would sometimes carry his son 
to school in his arms, and exhibit the greatest 
care for him ; and yet, at other times, he is said 
to have whipped him for the merest trifle until 
the blood came. 

Wittenberg. 

I sought an early opportunity to visit Wit- 
tenberg, the place of the great reformer's prin- 
48 



n 



IN L UTHER 'S STEPS, 49 

cipal labors, and where he now lies buried in 
the palace church by the side of his beloved 
Melanchthon. One of the first things to arrest 
our attention as we enter the town, is a small 
inclosure in which stands a young and vigorous 
oak, growing on the spot where Luther burned 
the papal bull. We feel that we are on his- 
toric ground, and that this place is indeed ''the 
cradle of the Reformation." A conspicuous 
inscription declares: ''Dr. Martin Luther ver- 
brannte an diese StattCy am Dec. lo^ 1520, die 
pabstliche Bannbulle.^^ That act, more than any 
other perhaps, marked the period when the 
great reformer utterly severed himself from 
the Roman power, and made all further nego- 
tiation and compromise impossible. The pope 
had said: ''So soon as this bull shall be pub- 
lished, the bishops shall make diligent search 
after the writings of Martin lyuther that con- 
tain these errors, and burn them publicly and 
solemnly in the presence of the clergy and 
laity. And from this very moment Martin 
himself must give up preaching, teaching, and 
writing, and commit his works to the flames." 
But on that memorable loth of December the 
unconquerable Martin, dressed in his long, 
Augustinian frock, led a great procession of 

4 



50 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

doctors and students and townspeople to this 
eastern gate of Wittenberg, where a suitable 
scaffold had been prepared. A fire was kin- 
dled, and as the flames mounted upward, 
Luther stepped forward as with the authority 
of an angel of God, and, holding up the pope's 
bull, exclaimed: ''Since thou hast vexed the 
Holy One of God, may everlasting fire vex and 
consume thee!" Thereupon he flung the doc- 
ument into the burning flame, and it was 
speedily reduced to ashes. 

Passing onward into the city, we go first to 
look into Luther's home, and what remains of 
the famous university in which he was made a 
professor at the age of twenty-five. Passing 
through the court of the Augusteum, which 
now serves for a theological seminary, we enter 
Luther's house — a part of the old monastery — 
in which he spent most of his life at Witten- 
berg. We ascend by a winding stairway to 
the apartments once occupied by the reformer 
and his family. Here are the chairs in which 
he and his beloved Catherine von Bora used to 
sit, and hold delightful conversation, and in- 
dulge in rapturous song. Here is the table on 
which many, perhaps most, of his works were 
written. Here is the stove of colored tiles 



IN L UTHER 'S STEPS. 5 1 

which he planned, vessels out of which he ate 
and drank, an old pulpit from which he 
preached, and many manuscripts written by 
his hand. Here, and in adjoining rooms, are 
shown the hand-work of Catharine, various 
memorials of the Reformation period, and por- 
traits of the reformers and their influential co- 
adjutors. On the west of the Augusteum, in 
the grounds of the Hotel Kaiserhof, is an old 
vine, of great size, running up one corner of 
the yard, said to have been planted by the 
hand of Catharine von Bora. One Sunday 
afternoon I obtained admission to Luther's 
room, and spent two hours alone there, musing, 
and writing letters to distant friends from the 
table at which the reformer studied and wrote 
his epoch-making books. 

On the same street, scarcely a stone's-throw 
distant, is the house of Melanchthon, still kept 
sacred to his memory, and marked by an in- 
scribed tablet above the door. Visitors find 
ready access to the upper rooms, where the ac- 
complished scholar lived, and wrote his volu- 
minous works, and died. In the garden back 
of the house is a stone table at which both he 
and lyUther often sat, and talked, and worked 
together. Near by is the building which in 



52 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

their time served for the purposes of the uni- 
versity, but is now converted into soldiers' 
barracks. In the market-place of the city- 
stand magnificent monuments erected to the 
honor of lyUther and Melanchthon, and at one 
corner of the open square is shown the house 
where lyUther's celebrated painter, Lucas Cra- 
nach, used to live. 

Of still greater interest is the neighboring 
Scklosskirche, on the doors of which the in- 
trepid monk and professor nailed the ninety- 
five theses which introduced the Reformation. 
''Scarcely had they been nailed to the church- 
door of Wittenberg," says a well-known his- 
torian, ''than the feeble sounds of the hammer 
were followed throughout all Germany by a 
mighty blow that reached even the foundations 
of haughty Rome, threatening with sudden 
ruin the walls, the gates, the pillars of popery, 
stunning and terrifying her champions, and at 
the same time awakening thousands from the 
sleep of, error." A contemporary historian is 
quoted as saying that "within a fortnight those 
theses were in every part of Germany, and in 
four weeks they had traversed nearly the whole 
of Christendom, as if the very angels had been 
their messengers, and had placed them before 



IN L UTHER 'S STEPS, 53 

the eyes of all men. No one can believe the 
noise they made." Within that palace church 
are the graves of IvUther and Melanchthon, 
marked by brazen slabs. It was fitting that, 
after their heroic work was done, these tried 
and faithful friends should here sleep side by 
side. 

On Sunday morning I went to the old State 
Church, where Luther often preached, and 
where the Lord's Supper was first administered 
''in both kinds" after the reformers broke 
with Rome. Here it was my good fortune to 
witness the administration of this sacrament 
after the manner of the reformed State Churches 
of Germany. After the service I was shown 
by the sacristan the graves and monuments 
of Bugenhagen and other contemporaries of 
Luther. I lingered long before the magnifi- 
cent altar-piece, the work of Lucas Cranach, 
which represents the observance of the holy 
communion, with baptism and confession at 
the sides; while portraits of Melanchthon and 
Bugenhagen, and Luther preaching from a plat- 
form, keep watch above the vScene. In the rear 
of the church is a house which bears the in- 
scription: ''Here lived, worked, and died Dr. 
John Bugenhagen!" 



54 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

I shall never forget that beautiful, sacred 
day at Wittenberg. It still lives with me as 
one of the most cherished recollections of all 
my foreign rambles. 

Worms. 

In connection with the sights of Witten- 
berg, I may as well record my visit to Worms. 
It was late one misty night in July when I 
arrived there, and I went at once to the hotel 
and retired for rest. But with the early dawn 
I arose and hastened out to look, first of all, 
upon the great monument erected here in 1868 
to the memory of Luther. The rays of the 
morning sun were just falling upon the various 
figures of this historic group when I reached 
the spot and gave myself up to the study of 
their expressive faces and positions. In the 
center of the elevated platform, loftier and 
more conspicuous than any other figure, is the 
bronze statue of Luther, eleven feet in height 
The commanding posture, the firm grasp of a 
Bible in his hands, and the uplifted saintly 
face, are all adapted to exhibit the great Re- 
former at his best, and as he might well be 
supposed to have appeared at that sublimest 
moment of his life when he stood before the 



IN LUTHER 'S STEPS. 55 

diet of Worms. Below this central figure, at 
the four corners of the massive pedestal, sit 
Huss, Savonarola, WyclifFe, and Waldus. On 
high pedestals, at the corners of the platform, 
stand the I^andgrave Philip of Hessen, Fred- 
erick the Wise, Reuchlin, and Melanchthon. 
Between these are three allegorical figures, in 
a sitting posture, representing three German 
cities which held memorable relations to the 
Reformation. Magdeburg, which suffered so 
deplorably by the wars of the period, sits in the 
garments and attitude of a mourner ; Augsburg 
appropriately represents Confession ; and 
Speyer, where the diet was held which gave 
name to Protestantism, is represented as pro- 
testing. 

The old episcopal palace, in which I^uther 
appeared before the Emperor Charles and his 
magnates, was long ago destroyed. It stood 
between the place where the monument now 
stands and the ancient cathedral. This last 
named is a massive building in the Byzantine 
style, richly ornamented without and within. 
Its foundations were laid in the eighth cen- 
tury, but it was not completed until the close 
of the twelfth. 

Aside from the sights now mentioned, this 



56 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

ancient town has little to interest a traveler 
except its historical associations. The student 
of legendary lore remembers that Worms is 
prominent in the story of the Nibelungen Lied, 
that great medieval epic of Germany. Tra- 
dition has it that the two women, Brunhild and 
Kriemhild, first quarreled in front of this old 
cathedral. Here, too, the Romans dwelt, and 
hither the terrible Attila came, spreading de- 
struction in his path. Here Clovis and Char- 
lemagne passed many a day. But since its 
fearful pillage by the French in 1689, this 
ancient city has lost its former prestige. 

Eisenach. 

From Worms I turn away in thought to 
Eisenach and the glorious Wartburg ; for when 
lyUther was returning from the Diet at which 
he had refused to recant, and his life was seen 
to be in imminent peril, he was secretly con- 
veyed to this old castle, and retained here for 
about ten months. In early life I read D'Au- 
bigne's popular *' History of the Reformation,'' 
and can never forget the graphic passage 
where he narrates the story of Luther's mys- 
terious arrest in the Thuringian forest. As 
the Reformer, his brother, and another friend 



JN LUTHER'S STEPS. 57 

were riding along a lonely road, five masked 
horsemen suddenly rushed upon them, drew 
lyUther from the wagon, placed him on horse- 
back, and quickly disappeared in the forest. 
After devious winding about in the woods, so 
as to elude pursuit, they returned to the spot 
whence they started, by which time Luther had 
become so exhausted that he alighted from his 
horse and drank from a spring by the side of 
the road. Then they conducted him, by un- 
frequented paths, to the Wartburg, where they 
arrived about midnight. 

One delightful day in June I rode from 
Eisenach some twelve or thirteen miles through 
the Thuringian forest, to visit that famous 
spring. A large beech-tree long marked the 
place, and was known as '' Luther's Beech," 
but it was destroyed by lightning in 184 1. In 
its place a fine monument, twenty feet high, has 
been erected, bearing the following inscription : 
" Here, on the 4th of May, 152 1, was Dr. Mar- 
tin lyUther, by order of Frederick the Wise, 
Elector of Saxony, seized and taken to the 
Wartburg Castle." On the several sides of the 
high marble shaft are appropriately written the 
Scripture texts of Psalms ex, 7 ; xviii, 3 ; and 
Isaiah xxxiii, 15, 16. I lingered long by that 



58 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

interesting spot, and drank repeatedly of the 
pure, cold water of the flowing spring. It is 
at such places that one catches the inspiration 
of the olden time. 

On returning to Eisenach we pass an in- 
viting old house and gardens in the forest, vSit- 
uated on a lofty hill called Hohe Sonne, from 
which we obtain a fine view of the Wartburg 
Castle in the distance. Many beautiful foot- 
paths connect with this point. At the southern 
side of the hill is the Chateau of Wilhelmsthal; 
but the most wild and romantic footpath 
among these hills is the Drachenschlucht (Drag- 
on's Gorge), which leads down into the charm- 
ing ravine known as the Annathal. For a 
mile or more the narrow road winds between 
precipitous cliffs, in many places not more 
than three feet apart and so high as to shut 
out the light of day. The shady Annathal 
leads into the Marienthal, where picturesque 
parks and gardens open on either side. One 
who loves to ramble amid hills and rocks and 
woods finds in the country about Eisenach an 
unspeakable fullness of delight. 

But that which, above all other objects of 
interest, engages the attention of the traveler 
here, is the Wartburg, which crowns the sum- 



IN L UTHER 'S STEPS. 59 

mit of a hill six hundred feet above the neigh- 
boring valleys. A moderate walk of less than 
an hour will lead one from the railroad station 
to this height; but it requires many a leisure 
stroll, and ascent and descent by different 
paths, to feel the full grandeur and beauty of 
the varying landscapes. One of my rambles, 
which I recall to-day with keenest relish, was 
a descent from the castle by winding paths 
which led into the Annathal. The entire walk 
was an experience of constant surprise and 
enchantment, as one charming view after an- 
other burst upon me. Abrupt turns, openings 
in the rocks ; magnificent landscapes suddenly 
revealed to view, and then as quickly hidden ; 
arbors, stone seats by the way, inviting nooks, 
ravines, graceful trees, little brooks and ponds 
of water in the distance, — all combined to 
deepen an impression of rustic beauty rarely 
to be seen. 

During much of the year visitors are daily as- 
cending and descending this attractive hill, and 
a guide is always in attendance to show them 
through such parts of the castle as are open 
to the public. We pass over the bridge and 
through a massive gateway, the old oak planks 
of which are relics of vanished centuries. We 



6o RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

proceed over a passage-way cut in the solid 
rock, and enter the Vorburg, or front castle, 
where we are permitted to visit lyUther's room. 
Beyond this is the Hofburg, with its various 
buildings and towers. Considerable portions 
of the castle are reserved for the private uses 
of the Grand Duke of Weimar, but man}?- of 
the more historic apartments are open to the 
public. Among these, the most interesting by 
far is the Sangersaal (hallof the singers), where 
occurred many of the spirited contests of the 
minnesingers of medieval times. But to me, 
the most attractive room in the whole Wart- 
burg was that in which Luther, then known 
in the castle only as '' Yunker Georg," spent 
those memorable months of 1521 and 1522. 
Here is the table on which he commenced 
writing his German translation of the Bible. 
On one side of it is an old straight-back chair, 
worm-eaten, and ready to fall to pieces. His 
bedstead occupies one corner, and by it is a 
large piece of the old beech-tree that stood by 
the spring where he was taken. In another 
corner is his stove, and near it a book-case and 
a chest. A smaller book-case hangs against 
the wall, and near it ancient paintings of his 
father and mother. Letters written by him 



IN L UTHER 'S STEPS, 6 1 

while here, secured in frames and under a glass 
cover, hang beside the portraits. On the op- 
posite side of the room his armor is suspended, 
and his portrait, near it, shows how he ap- 
peared as ''Knight George." Out of the win- 
dow one can see a landscape of entrancing 
beauty, stretching away westward as far as the 
eye can reach. Ah ! what conflicts of soul 
were fought out in this upper chamber ! Here, 
in hours of depression, Luther was wont to 
see strange specters. Outward forms and in- 
ward thoughts would at times take on a fearful 
personality, and once he thought he saw Satan 
himself standing at his right hand, to oppose 
and scoff at him. Tradition has it that lyUther 
arose from his writing-table in a passion of 
rage and hurled his inkstand at the devil's 
head. The spot on the wall where the missile 
struck is still pointed out, and curious visitors 
have cut the wood and plaster all about it for 
mementos of this famous instance of halluci- 
nation. 

E1S1.KBKN. 

I turned away from Eisenach, not without 
casting many a longing, lingering look behind, 
and passed over to Erfurt, the ancient capital 
of Thuringia. But, alas ! the cell of the Angus- 



62 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

tinian Monastery, in which Luther in early 
life spent three years of marvelous conflict of 
soul, and cultivated his first profound convic- 
tions of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, 
has been utterly destroyed b^^ fire. So I hast- 
ened on to Eisleben, the place of his birth, 
and where, after his mighty work was finished, 
he returned to die. The house in which Luther 
was born is now used for a school, but it is 
marked by an inscription over the door, and 
the birth-chamber is kept sacred to his mem- 
ory. Here are shown a number of things once 
owned and used by the reformer; and in the 
neighboring Church of St. Peter and St. Paul 
is the font in which he was baptized, and what 
are said to be portions of garments once worn 
by him. In another part of the town is the 
church in which he preached his last sermon; 
and just across the street from it, marked by a 
tablet, is the house where he expired. I en- 
tered, and was conducted ^to a long, narrow 
room on the second floor. A small recess, in 
the end farthest from the windows, is said to 
be the spot where he breathed his last. The 
room is now unoccupied, bare of all furniture, 
and kept as a holy place, to which many a Prot- 
estant pilgrim reverently comes. 



(E^apfEt VI. 

GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES. 

O detail, in the order of their occurrence, 




all my journeys through the chief cities 
* of Europe, would be monotonous to 
writer and reader. As elsewhere stated, I vis- 
ited some of these cities many times. In the 
university towns, where my chief object was 
to observe the work of distinguished teachers, 
I do not stop to narrate many objects of inter- 
est worthy of mention. Were it my purpose 
to give a full account of my observations, or 
prepare a guide-book for others, such omis- 
sions would be a fatal defect; for in all these 
great European cities one sees picture-galleries 
and museums and monumental statues and ca- 
thedrals and parks and gardens and palaces. 
I found myself often wearied with the sight of 
almost innumerable objects of this kind. How 
much more might my reader be wearied with 
the bare recital of them ! I therefore propose, 
in this exceptionally long chapter, to mention 
only the more interesting sights and reminis- 

63 



64 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

cences of several famous cities in the central 
part of Europe. 

Casski.. 

I shall never forget the general impression 
of beauty and thrift which a short visit to Cas- 
sel left upon me. This former capital of the 
Electorate of Hessen has no special claims on 
an American, who remembers that, during the 
War of the Revolution, the elector, whose 
statue now adorns the center of the broad 
Friedrichs-Platz, sent twelve thousand Hes- 
sians to help the English crush the Colonial 
struggle for liberty. But those former days 
may now be easily forgiven, and any visitor 
from any nation can find much in this old 
Hessian town to admire. Aside from museums 
and picture-galleries stored with treasures of 
art, there are here so many handsome streets, 
and broad squares, and charming views of hills 
and valleys round about, that a pedestrian can 
hardly tire of walking and gazing. At the 
time of my visit, in June, 1887, the German 
Methodist Conference was in session here. 
One day the Conference went in a body, by a 
special train, to Wilhelmshohe, some four miles 
out of the city. No word-picture can ade- 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES, 65 

quately describe that forest park. The palace 
was erected about the beginning of this cen" 
tury, and is richly furnished, but rarely occu- 
pied. Its most recent fame is in the fact that 
it was made the prison of Napoleon III, after 
his capture at Sedan in 1870. The rooms the 
captive emperor occupied remain just as he 
left them when, in 187 1, he was removed to 
England. The wooded hills about are full of 
dreamy beauty. One can wander through the 
winding paths for hours and hours, and meet 
at every turn some new and delightful scene. 
Rocks covered with moss, temples, grottoes, 
waterfalls, fountains, lakes, bridges, arbors — all 
that taste and skill in landscape-gardening 
could do — furnish a wilderness of rural luxu- 
ries. The Riesenschloss, on the highest part 
of the grounds, is a lofty octagonal structure 
of three stories, from the top of which a pan- 
orama of bewildering loveliness opens to the 
eye on every side. This castle — erected ap- 
parently not for residence, but for prospect — 
is surmounted by an immense copper statue 
of Hercules. The club on which the colossal 
hero leans is hollow, and large enough to hold 
eight persons. I was satisfied to climb up into 
one of his feet, and look out of a window that 

5 



66 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

Opened from his great toe. The artificial cas- 
cades that descend from this castle are not the 
least remarkable sights of these royal grounds. 
The water falls from terrace to terrace, gathers 
up into large basins, and then tumbles again 
to a lower platform, and so on for a distance 
of three hundred yards. The great fountain 
far below, in front of the palace, sends up a 
spout of water to the height of two hundred 
feet or more. A look upward, from the front 
of the palace to the Riesenschloss, with cas- 
cades foaming far above and fountain playing 
near at hand, is the memory of a lifetime. 

Heidelberg. 

But there is another spot in Germany which, 
for beauty of situation and historical interest, 
surpasses Wilhelmshohe. It is the old town 
on the Neckar, which was for more than five 
hundred years the capital of the Rhenish Pal- 
atinate and residence of the Counts Palatine. 
Heidelberg consists mainly of one or two 
streets, extending along the river at the foot 
of the mountains a distance of three miles. 
Its charm is in the romantic hills and the ruined 
castle. The latter occupies a mountain spur 
three hundred feet or more above the valley, 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES. 67 

and is said to be the most picturesque and 
magnificent ruin of Germany. Its foundations 
were laid by Rudolph I, near the close of the 
thirteenth century ; but later counts and elec- 
tors added building after building, palace after 
palace, with courts and towers and fortresses, 
for the space of three centuries, until the con- 
nected structures became a mountain city in 
itself. Visitors are conducted through ancient 
halls and courts, up to the lookout places of 
the towers; down into subterranean passage- 
ways and cellars, in one of which is shown an 
immense cask, thirty-six feet long and twenty- 
four high, and said to have a capacity of fifty 
thousand gallons. On the side towards the 
mountain lies the unbroken mass of masonry 
known as ''The Blasted Tower," so solid in its 
construction that when blown up by the French, 
in 1689, it was only broken into two parts — the 
base remaining in position, and the upper half 
falling as one piece into the moat below. 
Around this splendid ruin are gardens of 
beauty, and terraces and walks and shady 
nooks and running waters, worthy of compar- 
ison with the ideal conceptions of the ''Arabian 
Nights." Charming walks for rambles lead in 
all directions. One may climb the wooded 



68 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

hills, or roam the vineyards of the "Philoso- 
pher's Path" across the Neckar, or wander 
away to the '' Wolfsbrunnen," or make more ex- 
tensive excursions along the river beyond. 

The principal objects of interest to me in. 
the city were the Church of St. Peter, where 
Jerome of Prague propounded his theses and 
maintained his doctrines at the beginning of 
the fifteenth century; and the university. The 
church has nothing besides the fact just men- 
tioned to give it celebrity; but the universit}^ 
founded in 1386, is the third oldest in Europe. 
Its library is said to contain over three hun- 
dred thousand volumes; its professors number 
about one hundred, and its students seven 
hundred. I had been trained in childhood in 
the Heidelberg Catechism, and it was a matter 
of historic interest to remember that this place 
was once the citadel of German Calvinism, 
and gave its name to one of its standard text- 
books. 

WURZBURG. 

It is an interesting ride by rail from Heidel- 
berg to old Wiirzburg, a predominantly Cath- 
olic town, and the seat of a universit}^ espe- 
cially famous for its medical department. One 
of the first things to arrest attention is the 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES, 69 

great bridge over the Main, six hundred feet 
in length, resting on eight arches, and orna- 
mented with numerous statues of the saints. 
Passing from the bridge up a broad street, we 
come to the cathedral, which was erected in the 
twelfth century. It has four towers, and is 
richly ornamented. Close by it, on the north, 
is the Neumiinster Church, which was built in 
the eleventh century, and contains the bones 
of St. Kilian, the apostle of Thuringia and 
bishop of Wiirzburg in the year 687. Here, 
too, lies buried, since 1230, that most famous 
minnesinger of the Middle Ages, Walter of 
the Vogelweid, and a tablet is erected to his 
memory. Passing on from this point through 
the Hof Strasse, we come to the Episcopal 
Palace, one of the most magnificent residences 
in the world. It contains two hundred and 
eighty rooms, besides a chapel and a theater. 
Its halls and imposing staircase and spacious 
apartments are adorned with frescoes, and its 
cellars are said to contain two hundred casks 
of wine! The gardens and promenades about 
this palace are in keeping with its general dis- 
play of grandeur and beauty. 

The university of this place was founded in 
1582, and is closely associated with the Julius 



70 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

Hospital, so called after Bishop Julius, who 
founded both the university and the hospital. 
The medical faculty of the university are also 
the physicians and surgeons of the hospital. 
There are also faculties of Political Science and 
theology, the latter of ultramontane type, and 
the professors and students altogether number 
about a thousand. 

On a lofty eminence across the river stands 
the castle of Marienberg, famous for many a 
siege during the long period of three hundred 
years. It commands a wide and beautiful pros- 
pect over the surrounding country. 

Nuremberg. 

A three hours' ride by rail, southeast of 
Wiirzburg, brings us to what is often called 
''the quaintest old city of all Germany." 

" Quaint old town of toil and traffic, 
Quaint old town of art and song, 
Memories haunt thy pointed gables 

Like the rooks that round them throng." 

The city is situated on the banks of the Peg- 
nitz, and is encompassed by a double line of 
fortified walls, separated by a deep, broad moat. 
The watch-towers on the w^alls are said to be 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES. 7 1 

seventy in number. The best way of first 
*' taking in " the general features of the town 
is to walk around the walls, and mark all their 
bulwarks, and frequently descend into the moat 
below and examine the gardens and winding 
paths therein. The twelve gates are not twelve 
pearls, but they afford an interesting study, es- 
pecially those with the four round towers ; and 
the bridges which cross the Pegnitz are adorned 
with many architectural designs of real beauty. 
Many of the streets of the city are made pic- 
turesque by the displa}^ of quaint medieval ar- 
chitecture, and the statues of saints and angels 
and heroes, which are more than can be told. 
There are three churches which no visitor 
can afford to pass without examination. First 
in interest is that of St. Sebald, with its mag- 
nificent portals and statuary as seen without, 
and its wealth of art treasures within. Among 
the latter, the most notable is the bronze mon- 
ument of St. Sebald, the master-work of the 
artist Vischer, and the labor of thirteen studi- 
ous years. Around the sarcophagus which 
contains the ashes of the saint, figures of ''the 
twelve apostles guard from age to age their 
trust," and below it are pictured in relief the 
traditional miracles of his life, whilst above 



72 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

and around is a great number of fathers and 
prophets and symbolical figures. 

Five minutes' walk southward from this place 1 
brings us to the celebrated Church of St. Lau- 
rence. The entire western fagade is an ideal 
dream of beauty in stone. The gilded copper- 
covered towers, the windows of stained glass, 
the fine interior, Stoss's portraiture of the Sal- 
utation of the Virgin, carved in wood and sus- 
pended from the roof, and the splendid candel- 
abrum in the choir, are all beautiful beyond 
description. But the rarest treasure of all is 
the Gothic, tower-shaped pyx in the choir, 
sixty-five feet high, on which the sculptor Krafft 
and his assistants toiled for seven years. 
Standing before this wonderful work of art we 
recall the lines of Longfellow : 

*' In the church of sainted Laurence 
Stands a pyx of sculpture rare, 
Like the foamy sheaf of fountains 
Rising through the painted air." 

The Frauenkirche, or Church of Our Lady, 
stands midway between the two described 
above, and its fagade, and sculptures, and 
stained glass, and old armorial bearings, and 
numerous monuments, are full of interest, as 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES. 73 

is also the lofty ornamented pyramid across 
the street, known as the Schone Brunnen, or 
Beautiful Fountain. 

From these churches we pass on to the old 
castle, foimded in the early part of the elev- 
enth century by the Emperor Conrad II, and 
more than a century later enlarged by Fred- 
erick Barbarossa. In the court stands an an- 
cient lime-tree, said to be as old as the castle 
itself. The various apartments, and especially 
the towers of the palace and the spacious bal- 
cony, afford magnificent views over all the city 
and the country round about. The apartments 
which contain the collection of instruments of 
torture are so many chambers of horror. Here 
one sees thumb-screws, and racks, and weights, 
and pulleys, and galling-irons, and such other 
inventions of cruelty as a fiendish ingenuity 
devised to punish heretics and criminals. Not 
the least horrible to see is the large wooden fig- 
ure of a female, hollow on the inside, and filled 
with sharp iron spikes so set as when closed 
to pierce, in a score of places at once, the un- 
happy victim condemned to be crushed within 
its awful grip. 

It is a relief to turn away from such a col- 
lection of horrors, and walk out beyond the 



74 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

walls to St. John's Churchyard, and muse be- 
side the graves of Dlirer and Stoss and Sachs, 
and repeat the lines of our American poet, 
whose verses on Nuremberg are an excellent 
guide-book to the place. 

*' Here, when art was still religion. 
With a simple, reverent heart. 
Lived and labored Albrecht Diirer, 
The Evangelist of Art. 

Here Hans Sachs, the cobbler-poet, 

Laureate of the gentle craft, 
Wisest of the twelve wise masters, 

In huge folios sang and laughed. 

Not thy Councils, not thy Kaisers, 
Win for thee the world's regard ; 

But thy painter, Albrecht Diirer, 
And Hans Sachs, thy cobbler-bard." 

And here I will end my writing about Nu- 
remberg; for to go on. and describe the quaint 
private houses, and the library of rare old 
specimens of books and manuscripts, and the 
National Museum, with its seventy-five rooms 
of antiquities and paintings and illustrations 
of art and industry, would be to leave too little 
to the imagination of my readers. 



glimpses into notable cities. 75 

Munich. 

It is hard to pass by such a city as Ratis- 
bon, with its magnificent Cathedral of St. Peter, 
and its historical old Rathhaus, and its ancient 
Benedictine Abbey, and its tomb of Kepler. 
We ought to run down the Danube, six miles 
below Ratisbon, and visit the beautiful Wal- 
halla on the hill, that marble ''temple of fame," 
designed to enshrine the mythology and his- 
tory of the German people. We ought just 
as much to run up the Danube to far-famed 
Ingolstadt, where Reuchlin taught, and Loyola 
found his ''little Benjamin." And how can I 
omit the mention of my stop at Augsburg and 
my good accommodations in that "oldest hotel 
of the world," the Drei Mohren? But all 
these places must be passed over lightly when 
we have such a superior city as Munich to de- 
scribe. In treasures of art this capital of Ba- 
varia is worthy of comparison with Paris or 
Berlin. Turn where you will about its beau- 
tiful streets, you meet with costly and impos- 
ing buildings, churches of all sizes and designs, 
museums and picture-galleries and triumphal 
arches and palaces and gardens and bridges 
and monumental statuary. We will take a 



76 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

walk through this city of well-nigh half a mill- 
ion souls, and yet try to keep in mind that, 
with what we have said of Berlin, and with 
Dresden and Vienna and Constantinople and 
Rome and Paris and London yet to see, we 
must not linger too long on sights, however 
beautiful, when there are so many of similar 
character to notice elsewhere. 

In order to look at the principal sights of 
the city in the shortest time, we pass from the 
central railroad station eastward, and find our 
way to the Max Joseph's Platz. In the midst 
of this open square we pause a moment by 
the side of the colossal statue to behold the 
objects of interest in view. The post-office, 
on the south side, presents a front of admirable 
architecture; and the National Theater, on the 
east, is one of the largest in the world, the 
stage alone being nearly one hundred feet 
square. But the Royal Palace, on the north 
side, occupies more space, apparently, than 
post-office and theater and platz combined. 
We enter, and find that at appointed hours a 
guide is ready, as in the old palace of Berlin, 
to conduct visitors through such apartments as 
are open to the public. Here, as in all the 
great palaces, chamber opens into chamber. 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES, 77 

and each is known by its appropriate name. 
There are really three palaces in one; namely, 
the old residence, the banquet-hall, and the 
king's building. They are magnificently fur- 
nished and arranged, and one becomes almost 
bewildered as he passes through rooms of crys- 
tal, and sumptuous bedchambers with gilded 
bedsteads, and treasure-rooms of jewels and 
diamonds, and goblets of gold and silver, and 
various specimens of all precious stones. The 
banquet-hall building, over eight hundred feet 
in length, has a series of six large saloons, on 
the walls of which are paintings illustrative of 
scenes described in the Odyssey of Homer. 
Here are adjacent chambers, filled with ex- 
quisite paintings and statuary, and many of 
them commemorating great historic personages 
or events. Here are the Halls of Charle- 
magne and of Barbarossa; the Battle-room and 
the Throne-room and the Room of Hapsburg. 
But the paintings which made on me the deep- 
est and most lasting impression are Schnorr's 
celebrated frescoes of the Nibelungen Lied. 
These are in the so- called king's building, or 
new palace, and represent in life-like form the 
principal characters and events of Germany's 
great medieval epic. 



78 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

If one has a taste and desire to look at cu- 
rious and costly coaches, carriages, sleighs, and 
hiarness, let him step to the east side of the 
palace, and examine to his heart's content the 
vast collections of the royal stables. 

From the palace we pass on northwards, 
through the broad and beautiful Ludwigs 
Strasse. Here, on every side, rise statues and 
churches and palatial residences. Midway we 
. come to the Royal Library, said to contain 
more than a million volumes. Colossal statues 
of Aristotle, Hippocrates, Homer, and Thu- 
cydides adorn the steps in front; the entire 
building is of exquisite workmanship; and no- 
where else in the world can one see a more 
unique collection of rare and curious books 
and manuscripts than are exposed in glass 
cases in one of the rooms within. Just beyond 
the library is the lyudwigs Church, which one 
should enter if only to look a moment on Cor- 
nelius's great fresco-painting of the Last Judg- 
ment. Still further on we come to the open 
circle, adorned with fountains, around which 
are the buildings of the university; and a lit- 
tle further on is the magnificent Gate of Vic- 
tory, more imposing and impressive than the 
Brandenburg Gate at Berlin. . 



GtlMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES, 79 

Returning now to the Royal Palace, we there 
turn westward along the Brienner Strasse, pass 
the Wittlesbach Palace on the right, and come 
to the lofty obelisk, oyer a hundred feet high, 
cast out of cannon captured in war, and erected 
to the memory of thirty thousand men of Ba- 
varia who fell in wars with Russia. A few 
steps further westward we enter the Konig's 
Platz, and stand in front of the imposing gate- 
way known as the Propylaeum. At first sight 
it reminds one of a Grecian temple, like the 
Parthenon, set between two massive square 
towers. Above the Doric columns are sculp- 
tured fine reliefs, exhibiting scenes from the 
Grecian wars of independence. On the south 
side of the Konig's Platz is the Exposition 
Building, where the artists of Munich exhibit 
and offer for sale the creations of their own 
genius, or copies of the works of famous mas- 
ters. A little farther on is the Basilica of St. 
Boniface, an imitation of the ancient Roman 
basilicas; thirty-six monoliths of gray marble 
support the glorious gilded dome, and the in- 
terior is decorated with numerous frescoes by 
accomplished artists. On the north side of the 
Konig's Platz is that immense collection of 
sculptures which bears the name of the Glyp- 



8o RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

tothek. The building runs around a large 
open court, and consists of thirteen halls, 
richly stored with monuments of art from 
Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Some of 
these rooms are adorned with magnificent fres- 
coes, and others contain sculptures by modern 
masters. Here, as in other like collections, 
one can wander and gaze until his eyes grow 
dim, and then feel that he has given the treas- 
ures only a passing glance, when months and 
years might be spent in profitable study of 
them. But why stop to speak of these works 
of art as so many and so various, when, five 
minutes' walk northward from this Glyptothek, 
we find two vast buildings — the Old Pinako- 
thek and the New Pinakothek — constituting 
together a national repository of pictures nu- 
merous as the stars of heaven? Here one may 
find representatives of all the schools of paint- 
ing, chronologically arranged, with the name 
of each artist, so far as known, attached to his 
work. Here, again, one finds a wilderness of 
halls and galleries and cabinets and side-rooms 
filled with most costly productions of masters 
ancient and modern. And yet, as if these im- 
mense collections were insufficient to supply 
the art-appetite of the Bavarians, there stands 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES. 8 1 

not far away the picture-gallery of Count 
Scliack, said to be the finest collection of Ger- 
man pictures in the world. 

On the opposite side of the city, in the 
broad Maximilian Street, is the Bavarian Na- 
tional Museum, richly stored with specimens 
of art and industry collected from all lands, 
and so arranged as to show the progress of 
civilization from the earliest periods down to 
modern times. My reader may well imagine 
that the whole city runs to art; but, indeed, I 
have not told all. There is the Bronze Foundry, 
with its great collection of models; and the 
Arsenal, with its museum full of banners and 
uniforms and specimens of arms that repre- 
sent the varying modes of warfare for five 
hundred years. The churches are full of pic- 
tures. The squares of the city and chief places 
of concourse are adorned with splendid monu- 
ments. In front of the magnificent Hall of 
Fame, in the southwestern part of the city, 
stands the colossal statue of Bavaria, said to 
be second in size only to the historic Colossus 
of Rhodes. It is the figure of a female, sixty- 
five feet in height; her brow adorned with 
sprigs of oak; her left hand elevated and hold- 
ing a wreath, her right hand holding a sword; 

6 



82 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

while at her right side, in a sitting posture, is 
the symbolical Bavarian lion. This marvelous 
statue, cast from the bronze of Turkish and 
Norwegian cannon, stands upon a pedestal 
thirty feet high, and steps lead up to it in front, 
so that from one who stands at the foot of the 
steps, the wreath which the figure holds aloft 
is much more than a hundred feet above. Vis- 
itors go up by an inside stairway, enter the 
hollow head of this symbolic Colossus, and 
find there two sofas, and ample room to walk 
about, and magnificent views through aper- 
tures which serve for windows. But I must 
leave this city of a thousand charms, and the 
only way to do it is to stop short and tear my- 
self away. 

Wkimar. 

There are three or four other German cities 
I must notice before I close this chapter. The 
memory of Goethe led me to the city that will 
ever be associated with his name, as well as 
with the names of Herder and Wieland and 
Schiller. This immortal quartet shed an im- 
perishable luster over the capital and court of 
the Grand Duke Karl- August ; but that luster 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES. 83 

is now a matter of tradition and monuments 
and graves. I stop not to write about the 
beautiful museum of art and its treasures, and 
the ducal palace and library, which anywhere 
else would demand a full description. I walk 
straight to the city church, built about the 
middle of the fifteenth century, and pause 
awhile in front of the bronze statue of Herder, 
'' erected by the Germans of every land." Next 
I pass to the rear of the church, and look upon 
the parsonage so long occupied by the author 
of ''The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry" and the 
*' Philosophy of the History of Mankind." 
Then I walk reverently into the old church, 
and stand upon the stone which covers his 
dust, and read upon it the touching inscription : 
''Light, lyove. Life." The spirit of Herder 
seems to pervade the atmosphere of all things 
round about that tomb. No one will leave 
the church without an admiring gaze upon 
Cranach's magnificent picture of the Cruci- 
fixion. 

I next find my way to the Schiller Strasse, 
and enter the "house on the corner," where 
Germany's great poet of the heart lived, mused, 
Joyed, wrote, and die4. Her^ th^ visitor is 



84 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

always welcomed, and shown the rooms and 
various mementos of the beloved poet. The 
house is owned by the city, and kept sacred to 
the memory of its famous occupant. Goethe's 
house is in the immediate neighborhood, and 
more accessible to visitors now than in former 
years. I was taken through the various rooms, 
and into his study, and into the rear passage- 
way to the garden where he and Schiller and 
other friends were wont to hold their sweet 
fellowship together. I was even permitted to 
walk about that private garden, and under the 
trees which the poet loved. The pictures, stat- 
uary, and other objects of interest about the 
house, are interesting chiefl}^ from their associ- 
ations with the great genius that once presided 
here. 

I had visited the house in Frankfort-on- 
the-Main where Goethe was born, and the house 
in Leipsic where he studied, and even Auer- 
bach's Keller in that city, and the Hexetitayiz- 
platz in the Hartz Mountains made famous by 
their mention in his great drama o( Faust; but 
this house in Weimar exceeds them all in the 
impressiveness of its associations. Here, when 
old and knowing that his end w^as drawing 
near, he penned those inimitable lines of dedi- 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CiTlES, 85 

cation to the Faust, the last two stanzas of 
which are thus translated by Bayard Taylor: 

''They hear no longer these succeeding measures, 
The souls to whom my earliest songs I sang; 

Dispersed the friendly group, with all its pleasures. 
And still, alas! the echoes first that rang! 

I bring the unknown multitude my treasures; 
Their very plaudits give my heart a pang. 

And those beside, whose joy my song so flattered. 

If still they live, wide through the world are scattered. 

And grasps me now a long unwonted yearning 
For that serene and solemn spirit-land ; 

My song, to faint ^olian murmurs turning. 
Sways like a harp-string by the breezes fanned. 

I thrill and tremble; tear on tear is burning, 
And the stern heart is tenderly unmanned. 

What I possess I see far distant lying, 

And what I lost grows real and undying." 

The monument erected in front of the the- 
ater to the honor of both Goethe and Schiller 
is a most happy conception. The two fast 
friends stand clasping hands together, as if 
showing to every passer-by that they are united 
in an inseparable love; and in death they are 
not divided. Ten or fifteen minutes' walk dis- 
tant is the Grand Ducal Vault, where the oak 
coffins of Goethe and Schiller have been placed 
side by side, and covered with wreaths of 
Wrel. 



86 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

Never shall I forget that quiet, beautiful 
Sunday in June, 1887, when I rested at Weimar. 
I attended the morning service at the memo- 
rable City Church, and sat during the worship 
near to the grave of Herder. In the afternoon 
I visited the spot where the mortal remains of 
Goethe and Schiller rest, plucked laurel-leaves 
from their coffins, and sent them to friends 
across the sea. And then I strolled out to the 
park, and walked about the summer-house of 
Goethe there, and through the charming arbors 
and rustic winding paths where, many a time, 
that master spirit and his most intimate and 
honored friends had walked and talked to- 
gether. 

Dresden. 

I shall detain my readers in Dresden only 
to pay a visit to three places of very remark- 
able interest — the Johannean Museum, the 
Green Vault, and the world-renowned picture- 
gallery. In the first named we find a collec- 
tion of porcelain which is a veritable wilder- 
ness of Indian, Chinese, JapanCvSe, French, and 
German works, so arranged as to captivate and 
long detain lovers of the ceramic art, and to 
bewilder and astonish other less intelligent 
observers. The vast collection is said to num- 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES. 87 

ber fifteen thousand specimens. More capti- 
vating to me was the Historical Museum, on 
the first floor of the same great building. 
Here is Germany's richest treasure-house of 
national antiquities. Some ten or twelve large 
rooms are filled with such objects as the ar- 
mor in which knights of the Middle Ages 
fought in battle and in tournament. Here are 
swords, spears, helmets, and battle-axes made 
notable by use in some historic fray ; here are 
firearms of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
turies; here are Hussite battle-clubs ; here are 
exhibited the sword of Peter the Great, and 
that of Charles XII of Sweden, and also the 
armor of Gustavus Adolphus; here hangs the 
blood-stained scarf worn by the Elector Mau- 
rice at the battle of Sievershausen, and here is 
the bullet which took his life away; here are 
the gilded costumes once worn by mighty 
kings and princes, and the sumptuous trap- 
pings of their horses ; here are the boots worn 
by Napoleon at the battle of Dresden, and the 
velvet shoes worn on the occasion of his coro- 
nation. In one room is the costly tent of the 
Grand Vizier Mustapha, which was captured 
by the Polish General, John Sobieski, when 
he came, in 1683, to the rescue of Vienna, then 



88 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 



T 



besieged by the Turkish army. One might 
spend many months among these collected me- 
morials of peace and war, and then feel that 
he had not half examined them. 

But many, who would not care to spend so 
much time in the stud}^ of implements of war 
and reminiscences of battle, would find ex- 
quisite delight in a prolonged study of the 
jewels and works of art in the ''Green Vault," 
so called on account of the color of the walls 
in one of the principal rooms. Here is an all 
but endless collection of diamonds and pearls, 
and precious stones of every hue ; here are all 
manner of vessels of gold and silver and 
crystal and ivory and shell and rare and 
costly wood ; here is the king's plate, and also 
a vast cabinet of coins ; here is a display of 
weapons, arranged according to the number 
and value of the precious stones with which 
they are decorated, — there is one bow which is 
studded with over six hundred and fifty dia- 
monds; here is an onyx seven inches high, 
believed to be the largest in the world. 

But I must leave thCvSe treasure-halls, and 
take a look at the famous picture-gallery in 
the ''Zwinger." This magnificent collection 
of paintings is the pride and glory of Dresden, 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES, 89 

and need not fear comparison with those of 
Paris or Florence or Rome. To attempt any 
formal description of the numerous master- 
pieces here would be foreign to the purpose of 
these pages. Their number runs into the 
thousands, and the fame of some of them has 
gone the wide world over. I was of course 
eager to see the famous " Madonna di San 
Sisto," and hastened to that well-known corner 
room which holds it as its one great treasure. 
I was disappointed. I had heard so much, and 
expectation was so high, that the first sight 
troubled me, and after a few minutes I turned 
away, and found, as I thought, scores of supe- 
rior works. The paintings which first and al- 
ways imprCvSsed me deeply, and remain fixed 
indelibly in memory, are Hoffman's Christ in 
the midvSt of the Doctors, Hiibner's Dispute of 
Luther and Eck, Grosse's Dante and Virgil at 
Purgatory, Angelica Kauffmann's VCvStal Vir- 
gin, and Titian's Tribute Money. I recall the 
striking colors in *' The Son's Last Greeting," 
by Hofif, and the vSuggestive picture of '' Paint- 
ing and Drawing," painting being represented 
by a woman, drawing by a man. I have no 
doubt that others, better versed in art, may 
justly condemn my notions, and wonder that 



90 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. ^^j 

I do not mention more of the great pro-Hi 
ductions in which this gallery abounds. Ma- 
donnas, madonnas, madonnas, look down upon 
you in almost every room ; Correggio's ''La 
Notte" and Sarto's ''Abraham's Sacrifice" 
ought to be mentioned; and every room has 
that which awakens emotions of the beau- 
tiful, But I will only add my experience in 
making repeated visits to the room of the 
Sistine Madonna. Day after day, as I repeated 
my journey to that famous room, and lingered 
longer and longer every time, I found myself 
becoming captivated with the vision of an in- 
explicable mystery. Those rifted clouds, those 
wondrous eyes, that subtle, mystic spell of 
blissful awe ! It was, perhaps, the thirteenth 
visit, that I found myself musing quietly on a 
seat in the corner, and jotting down these 
words : 

O thou embodiment of many a dream ! What 
inspirations to purity, and hope, and heavenly- 
mindedness hast thou kindled in the countless 
pilgrims from all lands who have come hither 
to behold thee! What tears have started in 
the eyes of intelligence and beaut}^ at the 
thoughts of what such silent lips can whisper to 
one's soul! The master hand that called thee 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CIIIES, 9 1 

into being has long since turned to dust, but 
thou remainest like a thing of life, and in thee 
Raphael's creative genius will speak to gener- 
ations yet unborn. Live on, beautiful ma- 
donna ! Though but a painted and perishable 
form, thou art an apocalypse of art; and years 
and years to come, long after we who stand 
gazing up at thee to day are all in dust, the 
pilgrim train will journey to this spot, and look, 
and dream, and linger, and adore, smitten by 
the enchantment of thy mysterious power ! 

Prague. 

A hundred things in and about Dresden in- 
vite one to prolong his stay ; but we go on to 
visit the old capital of Bohemia. Two hours, 
by rail, from Dresden, we reach the Austrian 
frontier. The charming valley of the Elbe, 
and the delightful opportunities for rambling 
among the neighboring rocks and hills, were 
so impressive that I stopped off at Bodenbach, 
and tarried for a day, to gratify a taste for 
sight-seeing and pedestrian excursions among 
those romantic mountains. Passing on to 
Prague, one soon feels that he is among people 
of a strange language, and in the midst of what 
was once the theater of great events. Here, 



92 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

too, is a somewhat ancient city, representing a 
period of more than a thousand years. It is 
the seat of the oldest university of Germany, 
and numbers at present some thirty-five hun- 
dred Bohemian and German students. The 
Jewish quarter boasts a synagogue of great 
antiquity, founded, according to tradition, in 
the first century of the Christian era. Here, 
too, is an ancient Jewish cemetery, cov- 
ered thickly with memorial stones. Some of 
these stones bear long Hebrew inscriptions and 
curious symbols of the tribe to which the de- 
ceased claimed to belong. The Jewish popula- 
tion of the city is said to number twent}^ thou- 
sand. 

The student of ChrivStian history is aware 
that Prague was the home of some of the most 
notable ''reformers before the Reformation." 
Huss and Jerome and Ziska are names that 
will ever be associated with the earliest strug- 
gles against the medieval corruptions of the 
Romish Church. The house once occupied b}^ 
John Huss is now marked by a tablet bearing 
the face of the reformer, and the Tcyn-KircJu\ 
in which he and the Hussites worshiped, is 
one of the most notable structures of the town. 
But the factions and fanaticism of man)' of the 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES. 93 

Hussites, and the position of Prague and Bo- 
hemia in the midst of jealous and ambitious 
rivals for thrones and empire, led to the ulti- 
mate failure of Protestantism in this seat of its 
early triumphs. 

I took an early opportunity to drive out to 
the famous " White Mountain," some four miles 
northwest of the city, and look upon the field 
where Bohemian Protestantism met its fate in 
battle. Here, in 1620, Maximilian of Bavaria 
led the forces of the Roman Catholic League, 
and, in a short, sharp, but decisive conflict of 
an hour, utterly defeated the army of Protest- 
ants. From that bitter and humiliating defeat 
the cause of Protestantism has never rallied in 
this region. 

Returning through the Reichsthor^ we stop 
at the Abbey of Strahow, look at the tombs of 
St. Norbert and General Pappenheim, admire 
Diirer's great painting of the angel-crowned 
Virgin and Child, and from the window of an 
upper room survey the city below and the' 
enchanting landscape beyond. From this Ab- 
bey we pass the Franz Joseph's Barracks and 
the Capuchin Monastery, and go on to ''the 
Hradschin," a vast group of imperial build- 
ings commanding the whole city and valley 



94 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

below. Here we enter a spacious quadrangle 
surrounded by palaces of archbishop, princes, 
and emperor; thence we proceed through 
arched gateways and open courts to the great 
cathedral, in which one may find a wealth of 
monuments and paintings and carved wood- 
work comparable with anything of the kind 
in Europe. Adjoining is the vast imperial pal- 
ace, in one of the ample rooms of which some 
medieval tournaments were held. Visitors are 
shown through the various parts of this palace, 
as they are in other famous palaces of Europe. 
One of its most interesting apartments is the 
old council chamber, with a side-room like a 
prison-cell, and various articles of furniture 
which savor of the rude old times. From one 
of the windows of this room two royal coun- 
selors were hurled by order of Count Thurn, 
and from this act of violence it is common to 
date the beginning of the ''Thirty-years' War." 
Two small monuments beneath the window, 
bearing the names of Martinitz and Slawata, 
mark the place where the Catholic counselors 
fell; and tradition says that they were so pro- 
tected by the power of unseen angels that they 
did not seriously suffer by that fall of seventy 

feet or more. 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES, 95 

There are other buildings of interest con- 
nected with this palatial capitol; but one spot 
which will be remembered with a sense of hor- 
ror is the Black Tower, beneath which, in a 
deep subterranean vault, the victims of impe- 
rial wrath are said to have been lowered and 
left to perish in hunger and darkness and 
despair. 

To the north of these palaces, across the 
road, is the Kaisergarten and the copper-roofed 
and richly decorated Belvedere, where Tycho 
Brahe and the gloomy and bigoted Rudolf II 
are said to have watched the stars and talked 
about the imaginary philosopher's stone. Be- 
low the hill, as we move on towards the bridge 
across the Moldau, we come to the palaces of 
Fiirstenberg and Wallenstein, in the latter of 
which are many objects of interest, not the 
least being the stuffed skin of a favorite horse 
of the great general — the very horse he rode 
at the battle of lyiitzen. Further on, we pass 
the beautiful monument of Radetzky, and 
come to the Karlsbriicke itself, one of the most 
interesting monuments in all the city. It rests 
on sixteen noble arches, and is over sixteen 
hundred feet in length. Its massive walls and 
buttF?3ses give i^ ft look of ^oUdityi ^tid it^ i^u* 



96 



RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 



merous groups of statuary afford an interesting 
stud}^ A marble slab and cross mark the spot 
where John of Nepomuk, after having been cru- 
elly tortured and bound hand and foot, was, by 
the order of the Emperor Wenceslas, cast into 
the river because he refused to reveal to him 
the secrets of the confessional. Near the spot 
a bronze statue of the martyr has been erected, 
and I often noticed devout Catholics bowing 
and crossing themselves as the}^ passed by this 
memorial of the holy man, whom they regard 
as the patron saint of Prague. This old bridge 
has been the scene of many a bitter conflict, 
and the old tower at the eastern end has served 
as a fortress in time of siege. Leaving the 
bridge, we pass the grand statue of Charles IV, 
the founder of the university, and come to the 
group of buildings known as the Jesuit College, 
a large portion of which is devoted to the pur- 
poses of the university. Further on we come 
to the Rathhaus, the principal chamber of which 
contains Brozik's celebrated painting of ''John 
Huss before the Council of Constance." In the 
lower part of the great tower on the corner is 
a remarkable clock, which, though smaller than 
the celebrated clock of Strasburg, makes a dis- 
play of the twelve apostles every hour. 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES. 97 

The Open square in front of this Rathhaus 
has been the scene of several bloody execu- 
tions. Here Wallenstein, after the battle of 
lyiitzen, had eleven of his chief officers be- 
headed; and here, after the victory of the 
Catholic League on the White Mountain, the 
Protestant nobles were publicly executed with 
the huge sword which is still shown in the 
Bohemian Museum not far away. Prague is a 
walled city, and one could spend many days in 
observing her bastions and bulwarks and gates 
and towers ; but she is only the third city of 
Austria, and we must move on, to look a little 

at the first. 

Vienna. 

Some two hundred and fifty miles southeast 
of Prague, in a vast plain lying between the 
Alps on the west, and the Carpathian Moun- 
tains on the east, we come to the great city 
which the Germans call Wien, but identical 
with the ancient Roman Vindobona, where the 
mild and philosophical Emperor Marcus Aure- 
lius died. But how is it that I enter this mag- 
nificent city, which we English people agree 
to call Vienna, with no particular enthusiasm 
or delight ? Few cities in the world have more 
attractions for the average traveler. Beautiful, 

7 



98 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

beautiful beyond description, are these broad 
streets and palatial buildings and inviting gar- 
dens and parks, and their innumerable treas- 
ures of art. But, narrow Protestant that I am, 
and vexed beyond endurance with the dark 
tale of wars and jealousies and ambitions and 
plots and Romish bigotry, for which the polit- 
ical history of Austria has been noted, I ap- 
proached this capital of the Hapsburgs with 
less enthusiasm than I had felt in visiting little 
Wittenberg. What European war for the last 
six hundred 3^ears, undertaken for the suppres- 
sion of human liberty, or for the gratification 
of some inglorious lust of power, has not had 
either the active co-operation or the approval 
of the power that ruled at Vienna? Read the 
miserable record of the feuds and fights of 
European States through all these centuries, 
and note what an unenviable figure Austria 
cuts among them. The ruling spirit has ever 
been that of oppressive and selfish despotism. 
What crimes against humanity may be justly 
charged against the house that made itself a 
willing leader in wars to crush out the life 
and liberties of Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary! 
But though inwardly full of extortion and 
excess, the outside of this cup and platter is 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES. 99 

worth looking at; and even her whited sepul- 
chers, though full of dead men's bones, are 
outwardly beautiful to the eye. The best first 
impression may be had by a ride — or a walk, 
if one prefer — through the entire length of the 
Ring Strasse, a circular street one hundred and 
fifty feet wide, on which many of the principal 
structures of the city are located. In some 
places this street is over two hundred feet 
wide. It occupies the site of the ramparts of 
the old city, and its circuit has the form of a 
horseshoe, with the great Danube Canal as its 
base. At the point corresponding with the toe 
of this horseshoe is the Royal Palace, where 
the rulers of Austria have had their citadel for 
five hundred years. Standing by the castle- 
gate which leads up to the palace, one may 
look around upon a scene of architectural mag- 
nificence and beauty that is scarcely surpassed 
in any other city of the world. To right and 
left extend the inviting grounds of the Hof- 
garten and the Volksgarten, adorned with 
statues; and the Temple of Theseus, which 
contains one of the finest creations of Canova's 
genius. Across the way are the two imperial 
museums, devoted to collections in natural 
history and art. The exterior decorations dis- 



lOO RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

play a wealth of statuary and artistic finish that 
draws the lingering gaze of every passer-by. 
The Palace of Justice and the Houses of Par- 
liament adjoining on the northwest, and the 
imposing buildings about the Schiller Platz on 
the southeast of the Royal Museums, are in 
admirable keeping with the various magnifi- 
cence of the entire scene. The Schiller Monu- 
ment in the platz is a thing of beauty. The 
bronze statue of the poet stands upon a pedes- 
tal, around which are symbolic figures of Ge- 
nius, Poetry, Science, and Love. Crossing the 
way again northward, we come to the *' Alber- 
tina," a rich and rare collection of drawings 
and engravings, and a library of fifty thousand 
volumes. Close by it is the Imperial Opera- 
house, with its outer and inner decorations of 
almost fabulous beauty. ♦ 

Returning now to the imperial palace, we 
may enter and behold many things common to 
all the great palaces of Europe — broad courts 
and imposing audience-chambers, and ball- 
rooms and galleries and sumptuous halls. The 
royal library is said to contain four hundred 
and ten thousand volumes and twenty thou- 
sand manuscripts, many of them most rare and 
curious. The treasury contains a vast collec- 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES. lOI 

tion of costly and curious articles, such as all 
kinds of precious stones and jewelry, cups and 
dishes, and crowns and swords that have each 
an interesting histor3^ Here are shown the 
sword and scepter and crown of Charlemagne ; 
and, if one can only believe it, some fragments 
of the ''true cross," and the spear which pierced 
the Savior's side ! 

Hard by the palace are two churches of 
peculiar interest — the Augustine Church, fa- 
mous for Canova's monument of Maria Chris- 
tina; and the Loretto Chapel, where the hearts 
of deceased members of the royal family are 
preserved in urns. The Capuchin Church 
contains the imperial vault, where one may 
look upon the coffins which hold the dust of 
Austrian royalty. Here is the sarcophagus of 
Maria Theresa; here, too, is that of the unfor- 
tunate Maximilian of Mexico, across which 
two silver wreaths are laid. Here, in like 
richly decorated caskets, rest the mortal re- 
mains of dukes and archdukes, and emperors, 
and kings and queens, and princes and prin- 
cesses. Mention should also be made of the 
great Church of St. Stephen, ten minutes' walk 
to the northeast of this vault of Austrian kings. 
It has the form of a Latin cross, and is three 



I02 



RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 



hundred and thirty-five feet long. Its outer 
and inner carvings and sculpture, its towers 
and windows and subterranean catacombs, make 
it one' of the most notable structures of its 
kind. From its lofty tow^er one can look down 
on the battle-field of Wagram, famous in the 
wars of Napoleon. 

Outside the ancient and inner city, bounded 
by the Ring Strasse, the modern Vienna ex- 
tends in all directions, and holds a population 
of more than a million. Perhaps the most in- 
teresting spot in all these outlying sections is 
that terraced garden, on the south side, where 
we find the two famous buildings now known 
as the Upper and Lower Belvedere. The Up- 
per Belvedere contains one of the most ex- 
tensive picture-galleries of the w^orld, and the 
Lower is noted for its remarkable collection 
of antiquities and rare and curious works of 
art. Farther to the south is the Arsenal, 
which has a museum of weapons and trophies 
of war, in which those w^ho are fond of exam- 
ining such objects may spend days of sight- 
seeing without any danger of taking in every- 
thing of historical interest. And other sections 
of this great city are adorned with other col- 
lections of art and industry ; and the bridges 



GLIMPSES INTO NOTABLE CITIES, I03 

and parks and hospitals, and the great uni- 
versity, with its three hundred and fifty pro- 
fessors and six thousand students, are all to be 
mentioned in terms of commendation. 

The outlying region all about Vienna in- 
vites one to a protracted stay. What delight- 
ful excursions one can make to neighboring 
battle-fields; and the garden of Schonbrunn; 
and the villas of Hietzing; and the park of 
Modling; and the picturesque scenery of Briihl; 
and the broad, glorious park of lyaxenburg; 
and the springs of Baden; and those paradises 
for pedestrians, the forest-paths of Kahlenberg 
and lycopoldsberg ! And there are Kloster- 
neuburg and Dornbach and Neu-Waldegg, and 
the many possible excursions by boat upon the 
Danube, that the very mention of them makes 
one yearn to settle down in Vienna, and, in 
spite of all the despotic memories of the past, 
spend many months in exploration and revelry 
of sight-seeing among her imperishable monu- 
ments of both natural and artificial splendor. 




Or^apto VII. 

CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE GOLDEN HORN. 

Y reader will grow weary if I continue 
right on with monotonous descriptions 
of German cities and their treasures of 
art. Before we visit any others of the same 
general character, let us take a flying visit into 
the Orient, and look upon another civilization. 
We shall find in southeastern Europe — in 
Turkey and in Greece — a very different kind 
of sights and scenes. And Vienna is a very 
good point of departure. Here we can take 
the Oriental Express, and proceed southeast- 
erly through ever-changing scenery of rock 
and river and hill and valley. We were for- 
tunate in having this new railroad all finished 
and in good running order some two or three 
months before we wanted to use it. It would 
have been delightful, no doubt, to have gone 
down the Danube by boat in the old-fashioned 
way, but we were satisfied to accept this new 
and more comfortable mode of locomotion. 
Ah, what anticipations filled my soul as I 
104 



n 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 105 

found myself and traveling companions in one 
snug compartment, starting off for a visit to 
the great city of the Golden Horn ! Can it be 
possible, said I, that a ride of forty-three hours 
will bring us to the Sublime Porte? Away 
we speed along the banks of the Danube, 
through Austria, through Hungary, through 
Servia, through Western Bulgaria, through 
Roumelia, into the lands of the unspeakable 
Turk. The Balkan Mountains tower up, snow- 
crowned, in the distance. We cross many a 
field traversed by the armies of the Russo- 
Turkish War. Flocks of cattle and sheep and 
goats are seen on hillside and valley; numer- 
ous cranes, of peculiar color, stalk quietly 
through the marshes a hundred yards from 
the train. Wooden plows, with four, six, and 
eight yoke of cattle, are slowly turning up the 
soil of many a field. We halt a while at Phil- 
ippopoli, the ancient capital of Thrace, founded 
by Philip of Macedon, and still containing 
numerous fragments of antiquity. We pass 
through Sofia, the present capital of Bulgaria, 
where a great crowd of people gather about 
the train. We counted twenty different cos- 
tumes, in living exhibition, at one time and 
place. We passed through Nissa, where Con- 



Io6 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

stantine was born. We paused awhile at Adri- 
anople, and had a view of the mosque of Sultan 
Selim, built of stone brought from Cyprus, 
having a dome higher than that of St. Sophia 
at Constantinople, and four graceful minarets 
one hundred and forty feet in height. This 
city was the Turkish capital in Kurope from 
1360 until 1453, when Constantinople became 
the possession of the Moslem conquerors. 

At length the Sea of Marmora breaks upon 
our view, and, like Xenophon's retreating ten 
thousand, we exclaim: ''The sea! the sea!" 
Then, in the distance, we obtain our first 
glimpse of the Asiatic coast; and in a few 
minutes more the walls of Constantinople 
heave in view, and the seven towers, and the 
minarets of many a mosque; and then the 
Golden Horn, and the motley crowd, and — the 
custom-house ! But honest and pious pilgrims, 
who do not divorce religion from morality, 
need have no fear even of a Turkish custom- 
house. One of Cook's guides, whose tickets 
we held, promptly met us at the train, and 
took on him the burden of all our petty cares, 
and in half an hour we were comfortably 
housed in the Hotel Royal. The darkness of 
night had now begun to gather over the Bos- 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 1 07 

phorus and the Golden Horn, and, after two 
days and two nights on the cars, we had no 
desire to encounter the outer darkness of this 
strange city, where, as our ears assured us, 
there was howling of dogs and gnashing of 
teeth. I preferred a spell of introspection. 
So, with ^imagination impressed with many 
beautiful scenes, I retired early to vSleep, 

''And sank in blissful dreams away." 

But though m}^ first repose in that world-re- 
nowned city was like sinking away in blissful 
dreams, my first awaking there was equally 
entrancing. I sought first of all to obtain the 
most beautiful views, and studiously avoided 
contact with what I knew would be repulsive. 
But the thoughts which were uppermost, and 
which kept continually forcing themselves upon 
me, were the manifold matters of historic in- 
terest. As I walked over the ancient town, I 
kept saying to myself. This is the site of an- 
cient Byzantium, founded more than twenty- 
five centuries ago. Hither, from Rome, Con- 
stantine transferred the seat of empire. Here 
Chrysostom, the bold patriarch of the golden 
mouth, proclaimed the truth of God, and, like 
another John Baptist, offended the beautiful 



Io8 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

but dissolute Queen Eudoxia. Here Justinian 
erected the magnificent St. Sophia, which re- 
mains to this day a wonder of the Eastern 
world. Greeks, Macedonians, Romans, Arabi- 
ans, Crusaders, Russians, Turks, and many 
others, fought and fell about these walls. 

Tourists have usually gone into raptures 
over the first impression which Constantinople 
makes upon one approaching it by water. But 
a view from one of the high towers, or from 
several of the neighboring hill-tops, is equally 
inspiring. The most impressive of all is the 
panorama of city and waters and hills and 
valleys seen from Boulgourloo, a lofty eminence 
on the Asiatic shore, where, it is said, some of 
the old emperors had their hunting-palaces. 
Here, at one sweep, the eye takes in all parts 
of the great city, together with the Bosphorus, 
and the Golden Horn, and the Sea of Mar- 
mora, and numerous mountains and valleys of 
old Bithynia. 

Our first day in Constantinople was a Sun- 
day, and as we knew not the place of any 
Christian worship, we turned devout Mussul- 
mans, and went to the famous St. Sophia. We 
entered with feelings of awe, mingled with a 
sense of sadness that this ancient church, once 






CONSTANTINOPLE. 109 

dedicated to Divine Wisdom, should have be- 
come the sanctuary of a false religion. But 
many temples of other religions contributed 
their riches that this might rise into being; 
and one knows not whether to admire more 
the wonderful symmetry and proportions of 
the whole interior, or the bewildering wealth 
of many-colored marbles and elaborate mo- 
saics, and columns and arches and costly stones. 
There are white marbles and black marbles, 
red marbles and green, and many a single huge 
block or slab in which several of these colors 
appear most marvelously side by side as so 
man}^ natural veins. Here are eight green 
columns said to have come from the Ephesian 
Temple of Diana, and another eight of por- 
phyry from the great Temple of the Sun at 
Baalbec. 

We passed over to the mosque and tomb of 
Suleiman the Magnificent, a masterpiece of 
Saracenic architecture, but a manifest imita- 
tion of St. Sophia. Here, too, are many-colored 
marbles, and beautiful arches and columns; 
and while we gazed in silent wonder on the 
awe-inspiring scene, numerous Moslem wor- 
shipers were repeating their prayers, and going 
through their Pharisaic forms of devotion all 



no 



RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 



about us. Many times during the day one 
hears from the minarets the solemn, curious, 
almost weird call to pra3^er. 

We were not content to pass a Sunday 
among the pious Mohammedans without look- 
ing in upon the worship both of the dancing 
and the howling dervishes. These all com- 
mence their service with the usual Moham- 
medan forms of prayer, after which the dancing 
dervishes proceed to whirl themselves in a 
most fantastic way, closing their eyes, lifting 
their hands, and revolving like a top, until 
one's head, not used to the sight, swims merely 
in looking on. The howling dervishes would 
be a fair match for the most boisterous pray- 
ing-bands that were ever heard at American 
Methodist camp-meetings, but their howling is 
carried on according to well-regulated tones of 
voice and movements of body. 

Of course we visited the Bible-house, and 
the office of the American legation, and Ro- 
bert College; for these all made us feel very 
much at home. But the great sights here are, 
besides what have been mentioned above, a 
sail by caique up the Golden Horn to the 
''sweet waters of Europe," and by steamer up 
and down the Bosphorus; a visit to the Castle 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 1 1 1 

of the Seven Towers, and a ride on horseback 
around the ancient walls; the museum of an- 
tiquities, rich in relics of the past; the Armory 
and the Treasury, and several rooms of the 
Old Seraglio; the Hippodrome, with its old 
obelisk from Heliopolis in Egypt, and its ser- 
pent column, brought here from Delphi by 
Constantine — doubtless the same which bore 
the golden tripod, and, according to Herod- 
otus, was set up at Delphi to commemorate 
the victory over the Persians at the battle of 
Plataea. Near the Hippodrome is the museum 
of the ancient costumes of the Janissaries, and 
Constantine's Cistern of the thousand-and-one 
pillars, and the ''Burned Column," and the 
Mosque of the Sacred Doves. To this last- 
named mosque, they say, come such as have 
had a fearful dream, and after throwing grain 
to the doves herein they need have no more 
care about their dream. 

Not the least interesting sights of Constan- 
tinople are the cosmopolitan crowds that may 
ever be seen on the bridge that crosses the 
Golden Horn. Some eighty thousand human 
beings are said to traverse this bridge daily, 
and their various costumes in most cases show 
their race and nationality. You see the Turk- 



112 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

ish ofl&cial in his carriage of state; the Mos- 
lem pilgrim, on his way perhaps to Mecca; the 
gloomy dervish in his long robe and high felt 
hat; the stately Russian ; the Greek priest; the 
wild-looking Tartar; the brown Egyptian; the 
gaudily-dressed Circassian ; the portly Albanian 
in his white petticoat; and the turbaned Jew, 
ready there as anywhere to make a bargain. 
You meet all sorts of vehicles and beasts of 
burden; men on foot, and on horseback, and in 
Sedan chairs; groups of youngsters, ready for 
service or for play; women veiled and women 
unveiled. And so the crowd jostles and moves 
to and fro from earliest dawn until late in the 
evening. 

One might write a long chapter about the 
bazaars of Constantinople, which run, like so 
many narrow streets, under covered archways, 
and give one the impression that he is wind- 
ing through an underground labyrinth. Here 
sit, the livelong day, sellers of all sorts of curi- 
ous fabrics, and the foreign traveler is beset at 
every turn with enthusiastic salesmen, who 
seem positive that he can not aflFord to pass 
without some purchase from their ample stores. 

One might also write a chapter about the 
sixty thousand dogs of Constantinople; for 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 1 1 3 

these appear in every street, and form distinct 
communities, so that if one dog strays beyond 
his proper street or district, a whole pack of 
his kind pounce upon him like a squad of 
police, and speedily force him back to his own 
proper domain. To such persons as do not 
sleep well, the nights are made hideous by the 
incessant barking and snarling of the dogs, 
which appear to sleep on the sidewalks most 
of the day, and prowl about at night. ''Outer 
darkness" and ''gnashing of teeth" are pecul- 
iarly significant expressions in such an Ori- 
ental town. 

It was our fortune and misfortune to be in 
Constantinople in the time of Ramazan, the 
Mohammedan Lent. During this month — 
which is lunar, and so varies much in different 
years — every strict Moslem devoutly abstains 
from food and drink, and also from tobacco 
and snuff, from sunrise until sunset. They are 
apt, however, to gorge themselves sufficiently 
at night to make up for the day. In the even- 
ing the mosques are illuminated, and special 
services observed therein. We witnessed one 
of these on a Friday evening from the gallery 
of St. Sophia. In the morning of the same 

day, which is the Mohammedan Sabbath, we 

8 



114 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

went with the multitude to see the sultan go 
to prayers. By the courtesy of the secretary 
of the American legation, we obtained admis- 
sion to a kiosk adjoining the palace, and so 
for the time were the guests of his Imperial 
Majesty. Some time before the hour at which 
he was wont to enter the mosque, a large body 
of soldiers lined the streets about the palace, 
and filled up all the open spaces by the mosque. 
There were all varieties of dress and uniform, 
and the marching and countermarching pre- 
sented a scene peculiarly interesting and novel 
in the way of a dress parade. At length the 
call to prayer sounded from the lofty minaret, 
and a splendid carriage, drawn by four noble 
steeds, carried from the ''Sublime Porte" of 
the royal residence the sultan and two of his 
chief ministers to the door of the neighboring 
sanctuary. As the carriage drew near, a poor 
man rushed forward with a petition to present 
in person to his king, but he was violently 
seized and hurried off by a number of guards. 
The sultan is a middle-aged, pale, sad-looking 
man, and withal a fitting impersonation of 
''the sick man of the East." When he had 
finished his prayers within the mosque, another 
carriage, with a span of magnificent white 



CONSTANTINOPLE, 1 1 5 

horses, was waiting for him at the door, and 
with an elastic step he entered it alone, and, 
taking the reins in his own hands, he drove 
back to the palace, and disappeared within. 

As I sat at the window of the kiosk, and 
looked down on the mass of soldiers and others 
who took such pains merely to see a monarch 
when he went to pray, the great dome of St. 
Sophia rose up to my view across the harbor, 
and formed a striking picture on the horizon. 
The question came to me : Is this triumph of 
a false religion in the city of Constantine a 
judgment on the Church of Jesus Christ for 
too much union with the State, and a going 
after the pomp and influence of the world? 
The old Church ran after Caesar, and fell down 
to do him honor. Now a polygamist and pit- 
iable tyrant offers his Pharisaic forms of prayer 
in the midst of a superstitious people, most of 
whom hate the very name of Christian. Only 
a pure Christianity, which inculcates holiness 
of heart and life, can secure to this city of 
beautiful landscapes a realization of its glorious 
possibilities. 

The thoughtful traveler often queries within 
himself what will be the future of this great 
city. It now seems like a marvelous mosaic 



Il6 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

of nations, languages, religions, deformities, 
ruins, beauties, and abominations. How shall 
this city and metropolis of untold possibilities 
arise? Here some half-dozen great Councils 
of the ancient Church were held, and their 
utterances have gone into the unfolding thought 
of historical theology. But what great Coun- 
cil shall formulate the ideas and forces which 
shall make the fairest spot of united land and 
waters flourish like a city and garden of God? 
My second Sunday at Constantinople was 
spent at Robert College, the guest of Dr. I^ong. 
The memory of that delightful day will linger 
with me while life and being last. My venera- 
ble host, now vice-president of the college and 
professor of Natural Science, came out here 
more than thirty years ago as a missionary to 
Bulgaria. Fresh and vigorous still, he is full 
of good works, an accomplished scholar and ar- 
chaeologist, honored and beloved by Christian, 
Jew, and Moslem. The college is located at 
the most beautiful and interesting point on the 
Bosphorus, the spot where Darius the Persian 
sat and watched his army cross on the bridge 
of boats from Asia into Europe. Since this in- 
stitution was founded, in 1863, some fourteen 
hundred different students, representing many 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 1 1 ^ 

different nations, languages, and religions, have 
here received instruction, and most of them are 
at this day occupying positions of influence and 
responsibility in various parts of the country. 
Robert College is a great light of Europe and 
of Asia, and a monumental exhibition of what 
blessings wisely-consecrated wealth may per- 
ennially scatter over nations. 

Near the grounds of Robert College, and 
overlooking the Bosphorus, rise the massive 
walls and towers of the ''Castle of Europe," 
the famous Roumeli Hissar. It covers several 
acres, and after more than four centuries re- 
mains in good preservation, a monument of 
the daring enterprise of Mahomet II, the Mos- 
lem conqueror of Constantinople. A huge 
granite cannon-ball is builded into the outer 
face of the southern tower, a symbol of the 
invader's purpose against the capital of the 
Grecian emperor; for the building of this for- 
tress was the beginning of the siege of Con- 
stantinople. Many a Christian church in the 
adjacent regions was demolished to furnish 
material for this hastily-built structure, and its 
exterior displays here and there the fragments 
of beautiful marbles which were cast indis- 
criminately, along with rude stones and rub- 



Il8 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

bish, into walls which are more than twenty 
feet thick, and towers thirty feet in diameter. 
When this old castle comes to be demolished, 
what precious relics of antiquity may be found 
buried in its walls ! Directly opposite this 
fortress, on the Asiatic shore, stands the '' Cas- 
tle of Asia," a gloomy-looking pile, and beyond 
it, eastward, stretches the beautiful '' Valley 
of the Heavenly Rest," pronounced by some 
writers the most picturesque landscape in the 
Orient. 

We tarried nine days in Constantinople, and 
visited its most interesting places many times. 
We sailed up and down the Bosphorus, and up 
and down the Golden Horn. One bright sun- 
shiny day we made a trip to Scutari, on the 
Asiatic shore. We visited the site of ancient 
Chalcedon, where once a famous Ecumenical 
Council condemned the Nestorian and Eutych- 
ian heresies. Near this place we walked 
through the English cemetery, where some eight 
thousand soldiers who died in the Crimean War 
are buried. Here is that famous hospital where 
Florence Nightingale ministered so gently to 
the sick and dying, and where she sometimes 
stood for twenty consecutive hours giving di- 
rections to the patient nurses, and cheering the 



CONSTANTINOPLE, 1 1 9 

sufferers with her inspiring voice and smile. 
We climbed to the top of the mountain Boul- 
gourloo, and looked northward and eastward 
and southward and westward on one of the 
most wonderful panoramas of natural landscape 
in the world. Here, too, is a famous spring of 
excellent water, over which one of the sultans 
has builded a cupola. Here the emperors had 
a palace, which served as a rendezvous for their 
hunting excursions among the hills and valleys 
of Asia. From this summit one obtains the 
finest view of Constantinople and its suburbs. 
Half way down this mountain, in the out- 
skirts of Scutari, is a home for the instruction 
of young women. It is a fitting complement 
to Robert College, and it is to be hoped that it 
may accomplish for the women of this land 
what the older institution is doing for the men. 
It is gratifying to the American traveler to 
think that both these hopeful institutions are 
products of American beneficence and enter- 
prise. With the elevation of the w^omanhood 
of the East, and the full recognition of her 
moral and religous force in the civilization of 
the world, these downtrodden peoples will rise 
to their natural rights of life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. 



^:) 



QTfjapfBr VIII. 

A JOURNEY INTO GREECE. 

From ConstantinopIvK to Athens. 

HE shadows of evening were gathering 
^^ over land and sea when we sailed out 
^ of the Bosphorus into the Sea of Mar- 
mora. The beautiful harbor, the mosque- 
crowned hills, the ancient walls and towers, 
gradually faded from our view; but the mem- 
ory of the wonderful city remains, and proba- 
bly ever will remain with us, a thing of inef- 
faceable interest. Farewell, great city of the 
Golden Horn ! God-speed the day of thy re- 
demption from the miserable Turk ! 

At four o'clock next morning I was on deck 
to note each object in the Dardanelles. The 
mountainous coast looks barren enough, and 
rarely can one see a sign of human habitation. 
We passed the ancient Lampsacus, and about 
seven o'clock anchored at the narrowest part, 
where Xerxes crossed with his mighty army on 

J20 



A JOURNEY INTO GREECE, 121 

his way to Greece, and where afterward Alex- 
ander's host passed over to fight the battle of 
the Granicus, and to march eastward and con- 
quer the world. We hired a little boat, and went 
on shore to look at the fortifications and tread 
for another hour the soil of Asia. About ten 
o'clock we saw to the left the island of Tene- 
dos and the neighboring plain of Troy. I con- 
fess to have felt no little emotion as I gazed 
on the region so celebrated in Grecian poetry 
and myth. Far to the east, some thirty miles 
away, we could see, by means of a good field- 
glass, the snowy summit of Mount Ida, and 
nearer by the mounds of Hissarlik, the sup- 
posed site of Troy, the place of Schliemann's 
excavations. Fain would I have landed here, 
and traversed that classic plain, and have 
passed on even to Alexandria Troas, where 
Paul had his vision of the man of Mace- 
donia. 

Turning now to the west, we were soon 
coasting along the southern shore of Imbros, 
which stood out magnificently against the 
northern sky. Then Lemnos rose up before 
us, that famed ^gean Isle which- the Argo- 
nauts found peopled with women who had 
slain their husbands ! Here, too, according to 



122 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

ancient legend, Vulcan fell when thrust out of 

the heavens — 

" From morn 

To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve." 

According to Pliny, this island had a won- 
derful labyrinth, with a hundred and forty 
columns ; but no modern explorer of sufl&cient 
tact and patience has yet arisen to discover 
any trace of this, or of other antiquities of this 
once notorious island. 

As our steamer moved on w^estward, and 
left the rugged Imbros behind, and drew 
nearer to the Isle of Lemnos, the lofty peaks 
of Samothrace became visible in the north, — 
that Samothrace to which Paul came with a 
straight course, after he had loosed from Troas, 
on his way to Macedonia. From the heights 
of this island, it is fabled, Neptune was wont 
to watch the progress of the battle on the 
plains of Troy. Still further away, we could 
see in the blue distance the island of Thasos, 
the home of the poet Archilochus, who called 
his sea-washed land "an ass's backbone, cov- 
ered with wild wood." 

But more imposing than any other object 
seen over these ^gean waters is Mount Athos, 
rising like a marble pyramid out of the sea. 



A JOURNEY INTO GREECE, 123 

Five or more hours it was visible from our 
steamer on the horizon. This sacred moun- 
tain of the Greeks is now famous for its mon- 
asteries, some of which we could see with our 
glasses as we sailed along. Eight thousand 
monks are said to inhabit this mountain, and 
pay into the treasury of the Turkish Govern- 
ment about four thousand pounds a year. So 
rigid is the ascetic discipline and care that no 
female, not even of the animal kind, is per- 
mitted to enter the peninsula on which this 
mountain stands. And yet the twenty monas- 
tic establishments of this mountain are all 
dedicated to the holy Virgin ! What a luxury 
it would have been for me, with competent 
guides and helpers, to have visited the neg- 
lected libraries of these old monasteries ! In 
the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Mount Athos 
was the principal seat of Greek learning, and 
manuscripts of priceless value may yet be 
found in the old monasteries. 

Next morning found us anchored in the 
Bay of Salonica, and off on the northern hill- 
side, like a vision of beauty, lay Thessalonica, 
whither Paul came from Philippi, and entered 
a Jewish synagogue, and three Sabbaths rea- 
soned with them out of the Scriptures, and 



124 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

showed that Jesus was the Christ. The gen- 
eral appearance of this city is doubtless about 
as it was in the apostle's day. The old Eg- 
natian Way still runs through the town from 
east to west. The most notable ruin is the 
triumphal arch of Constantine, erected to cel- 
ebrate his victory over Licinius. It was once 
covered with marble slabs, only a portion of 
which still remain, exhibiting in bold relief the 
various objects of a triumphal march. 

The oldest church is probably that known 
as St. George's, supposed to date from the 
time of Constantine. In front of it is a very 
ancient pulpit, sculptured out of white marble, 
and notable for eight bas-reliefs, representing 
the visit and worship of the Magi. It is 
called by the Turkish guides the pulpit of 
St. Paul. Not far away is the Church of St. 
Sophia, a relatively small copy of that in Con- 
stantinople, and also dating from the time of 
Justinian. Both these churches have been con- 
verted into Moslem mosques, and their beau- 
tiful mosaics are plastered over by the hea- 
thenish, superstitious Turks. The city is full 
of interest, as every well-read Christian is 
aware. Its population is 100,000, of whom 
about 60,000 are Jews, descendants of those 



A JOURNEY INTO GREECE. 12 S 

who were driven here by Spanish persecution 
in the fifteenth century. There are some thirty 
synagogues, as many Mohammedan mosques, 
and eight Christian churches. We looked in 
vain for the house of Jason, but our experi- 
ence among the Jews convinced us that there 
were plenty of ''lewd fellows of the baser 
sort" still in town, who could easily make it 
unpleasant for all and any whom they might 
envy or dislike. 

The Roman arch, known as the Vardar 
Gate, which so long stood at the western end 
of the Via Egnatia, has been destroyed by the 
ignorant and unappreciative workmen, who 
used its materials for repairing the walls of the 
city. But an inscription which it bore, con- 
taining the word politarch, used in Acts xvii, 
6, 8, for ruler of the city, is now preserved in 
the British Museum. 

We spent a whole day in and about Thes- 
salonica, while our steamer took in a cargo of 
grain and wool for Genoa. It was evening 
when we sailed out of the beautiful harbor, 
and the illuminated city, with citadel and 
mosque and minaret and tower, gradually dis- 
appeared in the growing darkness. Next day 



126 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

we sailed among the rocky Sporades, and along 
the eastern shore of Euboea, with its snow- 
capped peaks ; and then we passed among the 
Cyclades, and at length rounded Sunium Point, 
crowned with the ruined Temple of Minerva. 
Then beautiful ^gina hove into sight, and 
Salamis, and the Piraeus, and, behold, we were 
on the classic shores of Greece. 

Athens. 

It had been a dream of my early years that 
I might some day visit the historic valleys 
and hills of Greece. On Friday morning, 
May lo, 1889, that dream became a reality, and 
it was with no little emotion of the subdued 
and quiet kind that I rode up by carriage from 
the Piraeus to Athens. A few traces of the 
famous '*Long Walls" were pointed out to us 
as we passed. The first view of the Acropolis 
and the ruined Parthenon was very disappoint- 
ing. The heat, the vast amount of dust, and 
the barren aspect of all the hills around, com- 
bined to make our first impressions of the ''Eye 
of Greece" anything but inspiring. We had 
read of this wonderful land, and had been led 
to imagine that every sight was beauty, and 



A JOURNEY INTO GREECE. 1 27 

every breath a balm; but most of our first 
sights were abominable, and almost every smell 
was a stench. 

But these disagreeable first impressions soon 
passed away amid the absorbing interest awak- 
ened by an examination of antiquities. My 
first walk, completed before I had been five 
hours in Athens, afforded me a hasty but 
most satisfactory view of the old Stadion, the 
Arch of Hadrian, the fifteen columns of the 
Temple of Olympian Jupiter, the monument of 
Lysicrates, the Theater of Bacchus, and that of 
Herod Atticus, the Propylaeum of the Acropolis, 
Mars' Hill, the Pnyx, the monument of Philo- 
pappus, the prison of Socrates, and the Temple 
of Theseus. The afternoon of the same day 
was given to a ride to Eleusis, and an exam- 
ination of the wonderful ruins of the ''Tem- 
ple of the Mysteries." The next day we made 
an excursion, in the morning, to the Bay of 
Salamis, and in the afternoon began a careful 
examination of the ruins of the Acropolis. 
These were revisited again and again, for the 
space of seven days, until all became as fa- 
miliar to us as one's home. 

The center and crown of all the glories of 
the ancient city was the Acropolis, itself a 



128 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

world of wonders. It is accessible only from 
the western side, and rises about two hundred 
feet above the surrounding plain. The first 
object of remarkable character to arrest one's 
attention as he climbs the steep ascent is the 
magnificent gateway known as the Propylseum. 
It is a marble wall with five huge doors, sur. 
rounded with lofty Doric columns, and every 
way adapted to impress on those who enter a 
sense of reverence and awe. Passing through 
this huge gatewa}^, we see before us a sloping 
rocky surface, strewn thick with broken col- 
umns and shafts, and capitals and friezes, 
many of them exhibiting in their ruin a beauty 
and perfection of finish which it is impossible 
to describe. The great temple to which all 
travelers give their chief attention is, of course, 
the Parthenon. In ancient times one of the 
Seven Wonders of the world, it is now a sad 
monument of wreck and ruin. Not a stone, 
not even a single capital, or even one small or- 
nament of the once beautiful frieze, remains 
perfect. In 1687 the Venetians captured 
Athens, and the Turks intrenched themselves 
in the Parthenon. From a neighboring hill the 
Venetians kept up a continual cannonade upon 



A JOURNEY INTO GREECE. 1 29 

this peerless temple, shattering column and 
frieze and roof, until they fired the powder- 
magazine within, and blew the larger portion 
of the building into fragments. Perhaps one- 
half of the columns, in whole or in part, remain 
standing; the eastern and western ends are 
sufiiciently preserved to afford a general idea 
of what the whole must have been in perfec- 
tion. But, even thus ruined, the Parthenon is 
wonderfully impressive still. I saw it in the 
early morning, at midday, at sunset, and by 
moonlight, and its grandeur and beauty, and 
the perfection of its proportions, seemed more 
and more wonderful with each visit. What 
must it have been in the days of its glory, when 
these white Pentelic marbles glittered in the 
freshness of their first chiseling, and every 
niche and corner was occupied by the master 
works of Phidias, and his fellow artists — statues 
over which, Plutarch says, the freshness of 
youth hovered as if there dwelt a mighty soul 
within them ! 

Next to the Parthenon, the most interesting 
ruin on the Acropolis is that of the Temple of 
Erechtheus. According to Grecian legend, it 
occupies the spot on which Athena and Posei- 



130 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

don fought for the possession of Athens. The 
most noticeable part of the present ruin is a 
portico on the south side, the roof of which is 
supported, not by pillars, but by the figures of 
six maidens, somewhat larger than life-size, ad- 
mirably graceful in their attitudes, and seem- 
ing to support with the most perfect ease and 
composure the massive marble-work above. 
But, alas! these beautiful figures, whose folding 
draperies seem almost ^instinct with life, have 
every one been broken and marred by the hand 
of the destroyer. 

On the south side of the Acropolis are the 
remains of the Theater of Bacchus, in which the 
great dramas of ^schylus, Euripides, Sopho- 
cles, and Aristophanes were once rehearsed be- 
fore delighted thousands. Many of the seats 
are hewn from the solid rock, and the whole 
semicircular inclosure was adequate to hold 
thirty thousand spectators. The seats remain 
tolerably perfect to this day, and the front row 
consists of chairs of Pentelic marble. Passing 
westward from this impressive ruin, we soon 
reach the inclosed Theater of Herod Atticus, a 
monument of the Roman dominion of Athens. 
Still further west, a short walk brings us to the 
hill and platform of the Pnyx, the bema of the 



A JO URNE Y INTO GREECE. 1 3 1 

« 

Attic orators, where the burning eloquence of 
Demosthenes 

"Wielded at will the fierce democracy, 
Shook th' arsenal, and fulniined over Greece 
To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne." 

The terrace on the hillside, where the people 
are supposed to have stood to listen, is over 
three hundred feet long and over two hundred 
wide. The platform on which the speakers 
stood is about thirty feet long, and elevated 
about thirty inches above the ground. Back 
of this, a huge block of rock, twelve feet across 
the front, rises to the height of seven or eight 
feet above the platform, and was probably oc- 
cupied of old by the president of the assembly. 
But it was not the platform of the old Athe- 
nian orators that chiefly interested me in the 
capital of Greece. The most sacred spot to 
the Christian traveler is the Areopagus, in the 
midst of which the Apostle Paul delivered his 
message more than eighteen centuries ago. I 
walked again and again over all parts of this 
rocky height. A flight of vSteps hewn from the 
rock, thirteen of which are still in good preser- 
vation, leads up to the highest point; but there 
are several other ways of ascending, and I 



132 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

found another stairway on the opposite side of 
the hill, also cut in the rock, by which the 
apostle is as likely to have gone up as by any 
other. To this historic hill a little company of 
us walked one quiet Sunday afternoon, and 
there, in the midst of the broad, commanding 
eminence, I read and expounded the sermon 
of the great apostle. Though read and 
studied a hundred times before, it seemed to 
me that I had never hitherto felt its admirable 
fitness for place and people so thoroughly. 
The graceful introduction and happy tact by 
which he took his text from one of their nu- 
merous altars are inimitable. Mars' Hill is des- 
olate and broken, the Parthenon is in ruins, 
the altars and images of Greek idolatry have 
perished, but Paul's sermon to the men of 
Athens lives, and is mightier in the world to- 
day than all the orations and philosophies of 
the Hellenic race. 

In Attica. 

One of our earliest excursions out of Athens 
was a carriage-ride to the ruins of the great 
''Temple of the M^^steries" at Eleusis. The 
distance is about twelve miles, and the road is 
specially interesting in that it follows in the 



A JOURNEY INTO GREECE. 133 

main the ancient ''Sacred Way," along which 
the torchlight processions used to march from 
Athens in honor of the Eleusinian mysteries. 
This ancient road is said to have been lined 
all the way with tombstones, traces of which — 
as well as of the ancient road where it was cut 
through the rocks — are still visible. In the 
midst of a mountain glen we passed the Con- 
vent of Daphni, a structure of the Middle 
Ages, built in part of the marble remains of 
an ancient temple of Apollo which occupied 
the spot. The chapel, which we were per- 
mitted to enter, contains some Byzantine mo- 
saics and two old sarcophagi. The court 
contains numerous fragments of old marble 
columns, and the rocks in the neighborhood 
of the convent exhibited many niches which 
seem to have been designed for votive of- 
ferings. 

At length we reach Eleusis, the seat of the 
once famous temple and worship of the earth- 
goddess Demeter, the giver of seed-corn to 
mortals. Since the year 1882 the Greek Archae- 
ological Society have here excavated from 
the rubbish of centuries the broken ruins of 
the ancient temple. Here they now lie in in- 
discriminate confusion, covering some four or 



134 



RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 



five acres with marble slabs and Doric columns, 
beautiful capitals and friezes and pedestals, 
broken images of gods and goddesses, any one 
of which would be considered a great treasure 
for an archaeological museum in America. 
One can still, with some difficulty, trace the 
plan of the ancient temple, with its imposing 
colonnades and gatewa5^s and porticoes and 
stairways. 

Another memorable excursion was to the 
battle-field of Marathon. Sending on a relay 
of horses the day before, we were able to make 
this journe}' in one day, and spend several 
hours on the historic plain of Athenian valor. 
After a ride of some tw^o hours, we crossed the 
southern spur of Mount Pentelicon, and came in 
sight of the blue sea and the Island of Eubcea 
beyond. Another two hours and the Plain of 
Marathon stretched away before us, and in its 
midst a conspicuous mound, which we at once 
recognized as that which the Athenians raised 
over the heroes who fell in battle with the 
Persians here. This mound rises about thirty 
feet above the level of the field, and has been 
well trodden by the feet of the numerous pil- 
grims who have come hither from many lands 
to do honor to the memory of old Athenian 



A JOURNEY INTO GREECE, 1 35 

patriotism. Sitting down on the top of the 
hillock, I read Herodotus's vivid description of 
the battle, written within half a century after 
the event; and imagination easily pictured 
again the rushing Greeks, the astonished Per- 
sians, the flight to the ships, and the shouts 
of triumph which broke from the enthusiastic 
victors. 

Our visit to the scene of the Battle of Sal- 
amis was no less interesting than that to 
Marathon. We took a small sailing-boat from 
the Piraeus, and passed over the same space of 
waters which the Persian fleet must have 
crossed as they pushed into the Straits of Sal- 
amis, confident of victory. That was a charm- 
ing sail, the waters marvelously blue, the Attic 
shore rough and rocky, with Mt. JBgaleos 
towering overhead, and the Island of Salamis 
directly opposite. We passed the little Island 
of Psyttalea, on which Xerxes stationed six 
hundred picked men to cut off any attempt of 
the Grecians to escape, and came into the nar- 
row place where the final and decisive conflict 
of the day was fought. We sailed up to the 
Attic shore, and climbed the high hill on which 
Xerxes is said to have occupied a glittering 
throne, and watched the progress of the battle, 



136 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

and witnessed the utter defeat of his own forces. 
From this elevation one commands a most ad- 
mirable view of ba3^s and straits and islands 
associated with the famous battle. 

Among my early recollections was a picture 
of the Battle of Salamis. On a lofty throne 
sat the Persian monarch, with one arm ex- 
tended above him, and gnashing his teeth in 
rage as he saw the Grecian vessels rapidly de- 
stroying his own. I little thought at that time 
that it would be my privilege to stand on the 
hill which commands so fine a view of the 
waters where that decisive conflict occurred. 
The rough hillsides, the calm waters below, 
the peculiar haze which ever seems to hang 
over the isles and mountains of Greece, com- 
bined to make that scene a vision of beauty 
that can never fade from my memory. 

In thk PE1.OPONNKSUS. 

A railway ride of a little less than four 
hours from Athens brought us to Corinth. On 
the way we passed through Megara, a tbwn of 
over five thousand inhabitants. Between Me- 
gara and Corinth the railway runs along the 
narrow pavSS of the Scironian Cliffs, famous in 
ancient legend as the haunt of the robber Sci- 



A JOURNEY INTO GREECE. 1 37 

ron, who kicked travelers over the precipices 
until he himself was kicked off by Theseus. 
The views along this narrow way are both 
grand and beautiful. As we approach Corinth 
we cross the canal, now nearly completed, 
which is designed to connect the Saronic and 
Corinthian Gulfs. The canal is one hundred 
feet wide and nearly four miles long, and the 
iron railroad bridge over it is two hundred and 
thirty feet above the water. 

The modern village of Corinth is said to 
have a population of about eight thousand. 
The ancient city, so famous in Grecian and 
apostolic history, was more than three miles 
distant, at the foot of the bold mountain known 
as Acro-Corinth. A feeling of solemn sadness 
comes over the traveler, interested in the for- 
mer importance of this great city, to find no 
trace of it remaining except seven columns of 
an ancient temple and some portions of their 
entablature. That splendid city of luxury and 
sensuality, in which Paul preached and founded 
one of his most important Churches, to which 
also he directed two of his immortal epistles, 
has utterly perished from the face of the 
ground. A few miserable houses have been 
builded near the columns of the ancient tern- 



138 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

pie, and are the homes of shepherds who lead 
their flocks over desolate fields once occupied 
by the most celebrated commercial city of 
Greece. 

A climb of an hour and a half, part of the 
way on horseback and part on foot, brought us 
to the summit of Acro-Corinth. It is now sur- 
rounded by a well-preserved medieval wall, in- 
side of which are the ruins of hundreds of 
small houses once occupied by the Turks. 
The view which opens on the eye, as we at- 
tain the summit of the mountain, is charming 
beyond description. Directly in front is the 
site of the ancient city, marked by the ruined 
temple mentioned above. On the neighboring 
shore we see the ancient port of Lechaeum, 
and the narrow isthmus beyond, and the old 
port of Cenchrese at the foot of the line of 
hills, where St. Paul had his beard shorn be- 
cause of his vow, and where he embarked for 
Ephesus. Beyond the blue waters of the Cor- 
inthian Gulf, on the north, we see the impos- 
ing summits of Helicon and Parnassus, the 
latter wrapped in a mantle of snow. To the 
west and south the mountains and valleys of 
the Peloponnesus stretch away in grandeur 
and beauty. In descending we did not fail to 



A JOURNEY INTO GREECE, 1 39 

visit the far-famed Pierian Spring, which is 
now covered by a Roman arch, and can be 
reached only by a wooden stairway some ten 
feet below the surface of the ground. The 
water is clear and cold, and fills a rocky basin 
six or seven feet broad and perhaps as many 
in depth. This is the spring which, according 
to one old legend, burst forth from the moun- 
tain at a stroke of the hoof of Pegasus. 

But I must not linger on Acro-Corinth if I 
attempt to mention our visit to Nauplia, Tiryns, 
Argos, and Mycenae. The railroads of Greece 
now make it easy to visit numerous interesting 
places which travelers of a few years ago felt 
obliged to omit because difficult of access. On 
the way from Corinth to Nauplia we pass 
through Nemea, where still remain standing 
three columns of the Temple of Jupiter, which 
was once the national sanctuary of all the 
Peloponnesian Greeks. We stopped over night 
at Nauplia, because we were told the best 
hotels were there ; but the best we could find 
were wretched. We were up and out before 
five o'clock in the morning, and off to see the 
wall-girt Tiryns. Here we found huge walls 
of unhewn stone, and could trace the broken 
outlines of the tower and gateway and halls 



I40 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

and courts of a most ancient Grecian palace of 
the prehistoric time. There is a weird grandeur 
about these old Cyclopean ruins, and one in 
looking on them feels that he is brought face 
to face with the old Homeric age. 

A carriage-ride of less than one hour took 
us from Tiryns to the ancient city of Argos, 
which Homer characterized as very thirsty, 
and given to the rearing of horses. Its im- 
mense rock-hewn theater is the most notable 
object of antiquarian interest. The tiers of 
seats, with their aisles and corridors, are well 
preserved, and were capable of accommodating 
twenty thousand spectators. 

A further ride of two hours brought us to 
the wonderful ruins of Mycenae, the city of 
Agamemnon, son of Atreus. Here we were 
shown the ''treasury of Atreus," the supposed 
tomb of Agamemnon, a large underground 
vault in the shape of a beehive, fifty feet in 
diameter and as many in height. We passed 
into other tombs of similar form and size, and 
then went up to the Acropolis through the 
'' Gate of the lyions," so called from being sur- 
mounted by a huge stone slab on which two 
lions have been sculptured in relief, and stand 
on their hind-legs with their fore-paws resting 



A JO URNE Y INTO GREECE. 1 4 1 

on the pedestal of a column. Inside the gate 
we saw the curious circles and halls and tombs 
excavated by Dr. Schliemann, in several of 
which were found human bones and large 
quantities of gold and costly ornaments. Let 
the interested student of Greek antiquities 
read Schliemann's books on Mycenae and 
Tiryns, and learn what stores of treasure and 
curious relics of the past were found among 
these ruins. Greece is a land of ruins, but 
she is steadily rising to a new life. Under a 
liberal and intelligent administration we may 
hope to see her rise again to a rank worthy of 
her ancient glory. 




Or^apiBr IX. 

RAMBLES IN SICILY. 

^E came from Greece to Sicily in an Ital- 
ian steamboat — a journey of two days 
and nights upon the Mediterranean deep. As 
we approaced Catania, on the eastern coast of 
the- island, the huge outlines of Mount Etna 
opened upon our eyes, towering up among the 
clouds, smoking at the top, and covered in all 
the upper parts with a mantle of snow. In 
numerous places smaller mountains rise on its 
slopes, like rounded snowbanks, and one can 
trace the various fitful paths of lava-streams 
which from time immemorial have poured 
their burning tides down to the plains below. 
The city of Catania is builded on a vast bed 
of lava, but the country around teems with 
most luxuriant vegetation. It would seem that 
when these lava-streams become broken and 
pulverized they furnish a soil adapted to the 
growth of choicest flowers and fruits. Here 
we passed through acres and acres of lemon- 
142 



I 



RAMBLES IN SICILY. 1 43 

groves, the yellow fruit hanging in great 
abundance from the trees. 

From Catania, which in itself has few things 
to interest a traveler, we passed on to Messina, 
and looked across the narrow strait which sep- 
arates the island from the mainland of Italy. 
Over against us lay Rhegium, where St. Paul 
stopped a day on his journey to Rome and 
waited for the south-wind to blow. There is 
little in or about Messina that calls for notice 
except the charming views of land and sea and 
mountains. We visited the Campo Santo, be- 
yond the imperial gate, a large and interesting 
cemetery, where the custodian told us that 
for seven hundred and fifty francs one could 
buy a solid resting-place in the marble vaults, 
and remain undisturbed to all eternity ! Our 
object, however, was rather to obtain from the 
high terrace the enchanting look over the 
strait and into the regions beyond, where the 
glorious panorama was truly one of exquisite 
loveliness. We also drove out some seven 
miles to the light-house on Faro Point, where 
the strait is narrowest, and looked in vain to 
see any signs of the terrible Scylla and Charyb- 
dis which made this passage so full of dread 
to the ancient mariners. Here Homer tells us 



144 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

that Ulysses lost six of the hardiest of his sail- 
ors, who were caught up like so many fish on 
hooks by the horrible monster, Scylla, while 
on the other hand the restless Charybdis 
sucked down the salt water and belched it 
forth again, so as to fill all the neighboring 
deep with fatal storms. The w^aters hereabout 
are all calm now, quelled possibly by earth- 
quakes, and the fabulous Scylla no longer 
haunts the shore. 

We returned along the eastern coast of 
Sicily, and lingered a day and night in the won- 
derful town of Taormina, perched on the rocks 
like an eagle's nest, five hundred feet above 
the sea. From the balconies of our hotel we 
looked down the precipitous cliffs, and it seemed 
as if we could throw a stone into the waters of 
the Mediterranean, which washed the dark 
rocks below. Above us, also, four or five hun- 
dred feet higher, were forts and castles and 
chapels, and ruins of former times. Here 
many a ruined wall and arch bore witness of 
the importance of the place in previous times; 
and the remains of an ancient theater, said to 
be capable of holding forty thousand people, 
confirms the belief that this fortress of the 
mountains was of old no mean city. The the- 



RAMBLES IN SICILY. 1 45 

ater itself is one of the best preserved struc- 
tures of its kind which we had yet seen, — walls, 
columns, seats, orchestra, and stage still re- 
maining quite complete. 

Journeying leisurely southward, we came at 
length to Syracuse, a city of more historic 
importance than any other on the island. The 
modern town occupies the small peninsula, or 
rather island, of Ortygia, and looks out on the 
one side upon the broad Mediterranean, and on 
the other upon the beautiful harbor, where, 
about 413 B. C, the decisive naval battle was 
fought which virtually determined the issue of 
the Peloponnesian war. Modern Syracuse is a 
dirty town of over twenty-three thousand in- 
habitants. Its cathedral is interCvSting, espe- 
cially from the fact of its inclosing the remains 
of an ancient Doric temple, the columns and 
capitals of which are seen projecting on all 
sides from the walls. The fabulous fountain 
of Arethusa still occupies its ancient basin by 
the side of the harbor; but an earthquake long 
ago exposed it to the influx of the salt water, 
and now it is converted into an artificial pool, 
fed by fresh water from the reservoir of the 
city, and filled with a great variety of fish. In 

the midst of the city, as if frowning on all the 

10 



146 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

bustle of modern life, are the gray ruins of a 
very ancient temple, called the Temple of Di- 
ana, but its origin and history are quite un- 
certain. 

All these were of little interest as com- 
pared with the wonderful ruins of ancient Syr- 
acuse. We expected to see antiquities of great 
interest here, but the half had never been told 
us. We hastened, first of all, to find out the 
real facts as to the nature and size of the famous 
''Ear of Dionysius," which was so constructed, 
as popular story has it, that the old tyrant 
could conceal himself in an upper chamber 
and hear the slightest whispers of the conver- 
sation within, and so learn the plots and plans 
of those who were imprisoned there. We found 
the ear to consist of a huge cave, cut in the 
solid rock, in the shape of the letter S, vary- 
ing in width from fifteen to forty feet, and 
running up like the interior of a steep roof, 
to the height of seventy or eighty feet, and 
contracting into a small concave surface at the 
top. We tested its acoustic properties in va- 
rious wa^^s, and ascertained that the least 
sound made at one end of the winding cavern 
could be easily heard at the other, a distance 
of more than two hundred feet. This cele- 



RAMBLES IN SICILY. 1 47 

-brated cavern is in the immediate vicinity, and 
in fact forms a part of, the deep quarries, or 
latomice, whence the building-stones of the an- 
cient city were obtained; and in these, and 
others of Uke character in other parts of old 
Syracuse, the captives taken in war, and other 
prisoners, were compelled to labor as slaves. 
There is perhaps no sadder chapter in Grecian 
history than that which tells how the flower 
and pride of the Athenian army, when defeated 
and captured here, were thrust into these deep 
quarries to toil, and famish, and pine away and 
die. The rocks tower up to the height of a 
hundred feet, and the excavations extend over 
many acres, and run like interminable laby- 
rinths through gardens and groves which have 
been planted therein in modern times. 

But space fails me to write of half the won- 
ders of ruined Syracuse. The Greek theater, 
hewn in the solid rock, and still in tolerable 
preservation; the '' Street of Tombs" hard by, 
with niches for votive offerings and countless 
receptacles for the ashes of the dead; the altar 
of Hiero, so large that four hundred and fifty 
oxen could be .sacrificed on it at one time ; the 
catacombs, through which we wandered till it 
seemed that the entire ancient city rested on 



1^8 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

these interminable labyrinthian halls of the 
dead; the old walls of Dionysius, distinctly 
traceable in many places, though now in ruins; 
the citadel of Euryalus, where Nicias estab- 
lished his army in the siege of Syracuse, and 
where we walked through acres of subterra- 
nean passage-ways hewn through solid rock, 
through which infantry and cavalry of old were 
wont to pass, and where side-rooms opened 
capable of holding an immense quantity of 
stores, — all these I can only mention, and must 
leave others equally interesting unmentioned. 
One could profitably tarry many weeks in 
Syracuse and study its remarkable antiquities. 
It is a wonder that they are not more visited. 
Thousands visit Rome and Naples and Athens 
and Egypt, and write volumes on volumes con- 
cerning what they saw in those historic places, 
but the wonders of Syracuse are comparatively 
unknown. Here are ruined theaters and am- 
phitheaters and catacombs and altars and tem- 
ples and churches, which are as wonderful as 
anything we saw in the lands more frequently 
visited by Europeans and Americans. But 
old Syracuse is not the only city of Sicily which 
possesses remarkable antiquities ; there are 
others in the interior of the island and near 



RAMBLES IN SICILY. 1 49 

the coasts, where one could spend delightful 
days of study and research. 

I will give the rest of this chapter mainly to 
an account of Girgenti, the ancient Greek city 
of Akragas, but afterward named Agrigentum 
when it became subject to Rome. It occupies 
a most delightful position on the southern coast, 
commanding from many rocky heights a vari- 
ety of exquisite views, over fields and valleys, 
of orchards and vineyards and flowers, the blue 
sea in the distance gleaming in the sunlight, 
and adding to the entire panorama an un- 
speakable charm. The modern city is set upon 
a hill, and has a population of twenty-six thou- 
sand. The ancient city was much more exten- 
sive, being some ten miles in circumference, 
and spreading over several hills and valleys. 
Among the existing ruins are the remains of 
six very ancient temples, of which the best 
preserved is the Temple of Concord, a Doric 
structure of yellow sandstone, one hundred 
and twenty-nine feet long and fifty-five feet 
wide. The rocks around are perforated with 
tombs, and in many places they have been 
overturned by earthquakes, and huge blocks, 
twenty to fifty feet broad, have been rolled 
down into the valleys below. Not far from 



I50 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

the Temple of Concord, and on the highest point 
of the ridge, is the Temple of Juno Lacinia, of 
which only sixteen columns remain standing. 
The rest lie broken and in confusion around. 
These ruins have been cleared of the accumu- 
lation of rubbish, and one can walk with ease 
among the standing and fallen columns, and 
observe how time and storm and earthquake 
have marred the beautiful work of the ancient 
artificers. 

The most wonderful of these ruined temples 
is that of Jupiter, which is worthy of compar- 
ison with the immense temples of Egypt. Here 
we found broken capitals of columns, some 
twenty feet in diameter, with flutings large 
enough for a man to vStand in. Each section 
seemed like a huge rock, and one wonders at 
the skill of the ancient workmen which could 
fit and raise to their lofty positions these pro- 
digious blocks of stone. In the midst of this 
heap of ruins lies a gigantic figure, composed 
of thirteen fragments, which have been put to- 
gether as nearly as possible in their original 
position. The statue was evidently designed 
to support some entablature about the temple, 
probably a portion of the doorway. It was 
suggested to us that this was the mummied 



RAMBLES IN SICIL V, 1 5 1 

form of old Jupiter himself, who had long ago 
ceased to rule, and had given up all care of 
the heaven and earth he was once wont to 
shake with his thunders, and was now quietly 
reposing amidst the ruins of his greatest tem- 
ple, undisturbed by the vicissitudes of time and 
human things. 

Besides the temples already named, there are 
those of Hercules, very much like the Par- 
thenon in its general plan; and of Castor and 
Pollux, whose beautiful pillars lie scattered in 
the grass and grain and flowers which grow in 
rich profusion all about them ; and of Escula- 
pius, now builded into the walls of a farm- 
house. These six temples stood in a row along 
the edge of a steep cliff which formed part of 
the wall of the ancient city, and must have 
presented a magnificent appearance from the 
neighboring sea. 

Girgenti is a most desirable spot for those 
who would spend a winter in a southern cli- 
mate. Here they could enjoy a bath of per- 
petual shunshine in the midst of visions of en- 
chanting beauty, and in the vicinity of antiqui- 
ties as wonderful as those of many places which 
have a greater fame. 

I will not stop to write about Palermo, the 



152 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

charming Sicilian city at which our rambles in 
this delightful island terminated. It is to all 
intents a modern town, set like a jewel in the 
midst of a semicircle of beautiful hills. Here 
are splendid streets, like some in Chicago, and 
large squares adorned with plants and flowers; 
here are galleries and museums and churches 
and public buildings, such as one may see in 
the best cities of Europe. And there are drives 
in the neighborhood of Palermo as delightful, 
perhaps, as any in the world. 

I close my notes of Sicilian rambles with 
the following lines of Wordsworth, the poet 
of the plaintive muse, and lover of rocks and 
hills and valleys: 

"Child of the mountains, among shepherds reared, 
I learnt to dream of Sicily ; and lo ! 
A pleasant promise, wafted from her shores, 
Comes o'er my heart. In fancy I behold 
Her seas yet smiling, her once happy vales ; 
Nor can my tongue give utterance to a name 
Of note belonging to that honored isle, 
That doth not yield a solace to my grief." 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 
Napi^ks. 









BEGAN my tour of Italy at Naples, that 
paradise of Southern Europe, and ended it 
^ ^ at Venice, the city of the winged lion and 
the singing gondolier. From Palermo, in Sic- 
ily, we fetched a straight course to the lovely 
Bay of Naples, and landed in a driving rain, 
so that we failed to obtain a delightful first 
impression of that glorious harbor w^hich is 
world-renowned. But there, against the eastern 
sky, arose the restless Mount Vesuvius, sending 
out clouds of smoke and dust, and we knew 
that we were in the midst of a region of re- 
markable interest. It was early on a Sunday 
morning, and we repaired at once to the com- 
modious Hotel Vesuvius, w^here, somewhat 
indisposed, I remained quiet all the day. My 
window opened out upon the bay, and com- 
manded a fine view of the volcano on the op- 
posite shore. It was no ordinary privilege to 
spend a Sabbath with such a scene in constant 

153 



154 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

view. That burning mountain was a suggest- 
ive and memorable sermon, and it reminded 
me of another mountain which was once "al- 
together on smoke, because Jehovah descended 
upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended 
as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole 
mount quaked greatly." 

Our hotel was but a few minutes' walk 
from that ancient tunnel through the volcanic 
rock known as the Grotto of Posilipo, through 
which the road runs direct out to Pozzuoli, the 
ancient Roman Puteoli. Near the entrance 
to this grotto we ascend by a rock-hewn stair- 
way to the traditional tomb of Virgil, whither 
the admirers of that Roman Homer have made 
their pilgrimages for centuries past to do hom- 
age to his memory. But the tomb is an empty 
chamber now, and no trace of the urn that 
once held the poet's ashes can be found. Even 
the ivy and laurel, which loving hands have 
often planted here, are soon destroyed by the 
long train of visitors, who must needs '' pluck 
a leaf from Virgil's tomb." 

One of the most delightful excursions from 
this place is that which takes in the lake of 
Agnano, and Pozzuoli, with its neighboring 
temple of Serapis, the Monte Nuovo, the caves 



A JOUR THROUGH ITALY, 155 

at Cumae, the lakes of Avernus and Lucrinus, 
and the charming Bay of Baiae. Thi.s should 
be supplemented by a two or three days' tour 
to the islands of Nisita, Procida, and Ischia. 
But, ah me ! I was unable, by reason of a tem- 
porary illness, to accomplish these much desired 
excursions. But this disappointment was, 
perhaps, more than compensated by the visit 
to the Castle of St. Elmo, and the neighboring 
Convent and Church of St. Martino, and the 
glorious drive thence down the mountain west- 
ward by way of Fuorigrotta. The castle has 
little interest in itself, aside from all such cita- 
dels, save that its enormous walls and fosses 
are worthy of particular notice. It is for its 
commanding position, and the wonderful pan- 
orama of hills and valleys and bay and islands 
and winding coasts, and the great sea beyond, 
that this summit must ever hold an enviable 
fame. The Carthusian Convent of St. Martin 
is rich beyond description in frescoes and works 
of art. The nave of the church, the choir, and 
the side chapels are all so gorgeously decorated 
that one almost .sighs for a little relief from the 
excessive prodigality of art-display. The quad- 
rangular cloister of the convent, with its fifteen 
Doric columns on each side, is in keeping with 



156 



RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 



all the rest, and the outlook from the convent 
garden is equal to that from the castle, and per- 
haps even more entrancing. And, in fact, an}^- 
where about this region, wherever one may 
wish to walk or ride, the eye is greeted by vis- 
ions of beauty, and one might well feel that, 
comfortably located in any of the charming 
villas about Naples, he could spend a long 
lifetime feasting his gaze on landscapes so 
heavenly. 

Within the city the one spot which, above 
all others, enchains the student of antiquity 
and art is the National Museum. It would re- 
quire a large volume to catalogue merely the 
names of all the objects of interest. Here is 
probably the finest collection of bronzes in the 
world. Here are some of the great master- 
pieces of sculpture of which all the world has 
heard, such as the Farnese Bull and the Far- 
nese Hercules. Here are ancient and medi- 
eval inscriptions of the highest historical 
value, old mural paintings from Pompeii and 
Herculaneum, Egyptian antiquities, Etruscan 
monuments, and vast collections of ancient 
glass and pottery, and coins and gems, and 
gold and silver ornaments. This museum also 
contains a picture-gallery worth}^ of comparison 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY, 1 57 

with any in Europe, and a library of two hun- 
dred thousand volumes and four thousand 

manuscripts. 

Capri. 

But if I run through all Italy in one chap- 
ter, I must not tarry longer in Naples. One 
afternoon we took a small steamer, and crossed 
the beautiful bay to the Island of Capri. The 
views of towns on the coast, and the circular 
shore, and the neighboring islands, and Ve- 
suvius smoking above them all, were most en- 
tertaining. We resolved to spend the night 
upon the island, and took up lodgings in the 
hotel of the Blue Grotto. In the evening we 
ascended the eastern hill, which rises about 
eight hundred and fifty feet above the sea, and 
attended a somewhat impressive service in the 
old Catholic Church. Near by this point, at 
the eastern end of the island, are extensive 
ruins, remains of the ancient Villa of Jove, in 
which the Emperor Tiberius gave himself over 
to all manner of brutish sensuality. Here is 
the perpendicular rock, seven hundred feet in 
height, whence the victims of Tiberius's wrath 
were cast down into the sea. All about this 
end of the island one finds traces of ancient 
ruins, and there are winding pathways, some- 



158 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

times cut through the solid rock, sometimes 
steep and dangerous, but always affording de- 
lightful rambles. The ruins of twelve palaces, 
which Tiberius dedicated to as many different 
deities, are said to be yet traceable upon this isl- 
and ; but we did not attempt to look them up. 
Some writers say that Capri was the home 
of the Sirens, and insist that the fairest of its 
women now are very beautiful. We observed 
among ourselves that one woman, whom we 
took to be the wife of the proprietor of our 
hotel, was, to say the least, good-looking. Her 
movements were graceful, and her general 
bearing worthy of a princess. When we were 
about to leave the island, we requested the pro- 
prietor to send our luggage down to the little 
boat by which we were first to visit the Blue 
Grotto, and thence proceed to Sorrento. As 
we were walking leisurely down the road to 
the beach, who should pass lightly by us but 
our admired " landlady," carrying our three 
heavy packages alone, and apparently with 
great ease, one calmly resting on her stately 
head, and the other two carried one in each 
hand! We looked at each other in mixed as- 
tonishment and mortification. "Colvin," said I, 
''must we endure all this? How can weaver 



A TOVR THROUGH ITALY. I59 

face the advocates of woman's rights again, and 
permit a woman — and such a woman ! — to carry 
all our traps?" The young man of our part}^ 
at once presumed to do the gallant thing, and 
stepped up to take at least one of the satchels 
out of her overburdened hand. But he soon 
discovered that her independent majesty would 
not tolerate such presumptuous interference. 
She spurned him away with an almost contempt- 
uous air, and looked as much as to say: ''Who 
is doing this job — you or I?" So we walked 
on, perhaps a quarter of a mile, following that 
woman, now hanging our heads, now laughing 
at the ludicrous spectacle we made, now won- 
dering what our female kith and kin would 
say to see us in such plight, and then avow- 
ing that we would, after all, be glad to have a 
photograph of ourselves and this woman of 
Capri just as we all looked at that moment. 
Our only comfort was that this was the custom 
of the island! 

A short sail in a boat with four rowers 
brought us to the entrance of the Grotta Az- 
zura. Here we three stepped into a smaller 
boat, barely large enough to hold us, and were 
told to lie down in the bottom and keep our 
heads low until we were within the grotto. A 



l6o RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

few strong strokes of the guide, and we found 
ourselves in a huge circular cave, more than 
one hundred feet in diameter, with a rocky 
ceiling forty feet above, and a depth of water 
of more than forty feet below us. The gor- 
geous coloring, for which this grotto is famous, 
now appeared in all its marvelous beaut3^ It 
is caused by the refraction of the sunlight 
through the blue water of the Mediterranean. 
An object thrown into the water, or a man 
swimming, takes on a silvery sheen, and the 
colors become lighter or deeper as the waves 
roll up at the entrance and so diminish some 
measure of the sunlight. We row^ed around 
and around the cavern, until it almost seemed 
we had entered some fairy world. 

SORRKNTO. 

Upon issuing from the grotto, we entered 
again our larger boat, and the strong oarsmen 
pulled us directly to Sorrento. The sail across 
the bay was full of interest, the landing at the 
foot of the high wall of rocks on which the 
city is builded, and the memorable walk up 
through the tunnel to the Hotel Victoria, were 
such bits of journeying as do not often come 
to the traveler. The house of Tasso on the 



A TOUR THROUGH ITAL V. 1 6 1 

cliff, and the cathedral with its episcopal throne, 

and other objects of minor interest, I pass by. 

The glory of Sorrento, to my thought, was the 

magnificent views it afforded, and the glorious 

excursions that may so easily be made from it, 

either by boat, by carriage, on horseback, or 

on foot. We sat one evening in the open space 

in front of the Hotel Victoria, and watched an 

'' Italian sunset." The panorama of sea and 

ivSland and cape and mountain and cloudless 

sky had on us all the power of a peculiar hal" 

lucination. Far out over the western waters 

the sun sank slowly, and seemed to grow larger 

but less brilliant as it neared the horizon. We 

were able to look directl}^ at the splendid light 

without being dazzled with such a glare as the 

midday sun emits. Gradually the waters took 

on the livid '' sunset hue," and the hills of Capri 

threw lengthening shadows towards us. Like 

an immense globe of gold the sun at length 

dipped into the wave, then began to shimmer 

and beam with multiplied rays, as if taking to 

itself an aureola of glory with which to bid us 

good-night; then was half gone from view; 

then gleamed a moment, like a piercing eye of 

fire ; then sank and was lost in the watery 

depths afar. And yet all over that western 

II 



1 62 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

sky and water hung a vision of varying splen- 
dors, as if the ranks of a heavenly host were 
lingering above the bed where some form of 
beauty had been laid to rest, and were watch- 
ing it with breathless interest. Slowly the 
darkness deepened, the western glory faded 
from our view; and then, turning our eyes to 
the other side of the bay, behold ! the fires of 
Vesuvius were filling all the heavens, and a 
stream of lava, ten or more feet broad, was 
pouring down the southern side of the moun- 
tain. We knew the sun had gone to greet our 
friends at home, beyond the ocean; but before 
we followed thither we had many another sight 

to see. 

PoMPEif AND Vesuvius. 

We made our visit to Porripeii and Vesuvius 
as a two days' excursion from Sorrento. The 
carriage-road from this point to Castel-a-Mare 
affords one of the most delightful drives in the 
world. We arrived at the Hotel Diomed, near 
the entrance of Pompeii, in the early after- 
noon; and having made arrangements for 
lodgings over night, and for the ascent of Ve- 
suvius in the early morning, we proceeded to 
examine leisurely the ruins of that famous old 
Roman city which lay for sixteen hundred 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 163 

years undisturbed beneath the cinders of Ve- 
suvius. The narrow streets are paved with 
blocks of lava, and everywhere one sees the 
ruts made by chariot-wheels two thousand 
years ago. We visited, of course, the Forum, 
and the Temples of Jupiter and Venus and 
Mercury and Neptune and Isis; the Triumphal 
Arch; ''the house of the tragic poet," and the 
house of Pansa, and the house of Sallust; the 
Gate of Herculaneum, the Street of Tombs, 
and the Villa of Diomed; the Greek Theater; 
the Triangular Forum; the Odeum; and the 
great Amphitheater, capable of seating ten 
thousand persons. Other houses and temples 
might be named, but of the same general char- 
acter. Here the antiquary can best study 
the life and customs of an old Roman town. 
It is now nearly one hundred and fifty years 
since this buried city was discovered and began 
to be exhumed, but we were told that more 
than one-half of it yet remains under the ac- 
cumulated ashes and dust of centuries. 

We were up and off at six o'clock the next 
morning for our trip to the crater of Vesuvius. 
We went on horseback as far as that mode of 
travel is practicable, and then climbed the re- 
mainder of the way by the aid of our guides. 



164 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

It is no easy foot-journey, even for an experi- 
enced pedestrian, and the heaps of lava-rocks 
become a sore trial long before one comes to 
the soft ashes near the summit. Then the 
ascent is very tedious — two steps forward and 
one slide backward! But at last the summit 
was gained, and we stood at the foot of the 
burning cone. The whole mountain was 
quaking with a continual throb. Sulphureous 
fumes issued from many a crevice over which 
we trod. The ground was often hot beneath 
our feet. Our expectation and desire had been 
to climb to the top of the cone, and look down 
into the burning crater, but this the guide for- 
bade. We persisted, but he said he would 
take no risks, and if we went up we must go 
without him. This we had half resolved to 
do, when suddenly an enormous explosion oc- 
curred, and a volume of fire and smoke, cin- 
ders, and scoriae and stones, issued from the 
mouth of the crater, and shot upwards to the 
height of several hundred feet above the sum- 
mit, and then fell all over the top of the 
mountain. One huge boulder, of probably 
several hundred pounds weight, fell within a 
hundred feet of us. That settled it. We beat 
a hasty retreat, and all our ambition to draw 




A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 1 65 

nearer to the crater at that time became a 
thing of naught. But in our descent we drew 
near to the great river of lava that was pour- 
ing down the southern side of the mountain. 
It seemed to be about twenty feet broad and 
perhaps eight or ten in depth, and ran like so 
much melted iron from an immense blast-fur- 
nace. After running two or three miles it 
gradually cooled and hardened, and rolled up 
into vast heaps of dark-colored rock. 

The ride from Pompeii back to Sorrento 
was, if possible, even more charming than from 
the latter to the former. We passed the ruins of 
old Stabiae, where the elder Pliny died from the 
noxious vapors of the great Vesuvian eruption 
which destroyed Pompeii; we followed pictur- 
esque windings of the road, now over a magnifi- 
cent archway, now along the verge of the precip- 
itous mountain. On every side arose visions 
of beauty, and we observed that the bewitch- 
ing glories of the Bay of Naples were capable 
of indefinite multiplication by surveys from 
different points of view. 

Amai^fi. 

Another glorious trip is that by carriage- 
drive from Sorrento to Amalfi. We found it 



1 66 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

difiScult to determine which was the more en- 
trancing, but, on the whole, concluded that 
this Amalfi tour was the more beautiful. The 
road passes over the mountain, and then fol- 
lows the line of the coast, in many places hun- 
dreds of feet above the sea. It has been pre- 
pared with great labor and expense, requiring 
in many places the support of great walls and 
viaducts ; in others, an extensive cutting away 
of the rocky cliff, or a tunnel through the 
point of some projecting promontory. At the 
time of our visit this wonderful drive-way was 
not yet completed, but we followed it to the 
heights of Projano, where we descended by a 
wild pathw^ay to the beach and proceeded 
thence by a small boat to Amalfi, '' where the 
waves and mountains meet," and where one is 
carried back in thought to the commerce and 
battles of the Middle Ages. For there was a 
time, we are told, when Amalfi had a popula- 
tion of fifty thousand, and commanded trading 
posts and factories in all the great cities of the 
East. The city became the seat of a powerful 
local government, which took the name of a 
republic, and figured prominently in connec- 
tion with the Crusaders' wars. It occupies a 
romantic position at the foot of a wild gorge in 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 167 

the mountain, and commands a fine prospect 
over the neighboring sea. Well might our 
poet, lyongfellow, write : 

" This is an enchanted land! 

Round the headlands far away 

Sweeps the blue Salernian bay, 
With its sickle of white sand ; 
Further still, and furthermost. 
On the dim discovered coast 

Psestum, with its ruins, lies ; 
And its roses, all in bloom, 

Seem to tinge the fatal skies 
Of that lovely land of doom." 

We sought one of the wild and weird little 
coves for which this coast is noted, and enjoyed 
a refreshing bath in the Mediterranean waves. 
We looked into the celebrated Cathedral of St. 
Andrew, gazed at its old bronze doors, its mo- 
saics, and its marbles. On the sides of the 
mountain is the quiet Convent of the Capu- 
chins, with its dreamy cloisters and arcades, 
and ** the terraced walk aloof," where the monk 
folds his hands, listens to the murmur of the 
bees, and leans forward over the rail, 

" Placid, satisfied, serene, 
Looking down upon the scene, 
Over wall and red-tiled roof; 
Wondering unto what good end 
All this toil and traffic tend. 



1 68 



RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 



And why all men can not be 
Free from care and free from pain, 
And the sordid love of gain, 

And as indolent as he." 

It seems to me now a shame that I should 
have gone to that Salernian shore and bathed 
in its waters, and yet not have visited the fa- 
mous walls and temples of Psestum, which 
were but a few hours' ride away. But, I ab- 
surdly reasoned, these old temples are less 
interesting than those of Athens and Gir- 
genti : why spend time to see so much of the 
same old cast? Temples, temples, temples; ca- 
thedrals, cathedrals, cathedrals; palaces, art- 
galleries, museums, — there is no end of them ; 
and with Rome yet before me, I can not now 
spend time to give a day to Paestum ! So I 
reasoned, and accordingly we rode over to Vie- 
tro, and thence by train to Naples, and thence, 
after a night of restful sleep, we started north- 
ward for the Eternal City. 

ROMB. 

Our route led us to Capua, near the ancient 
city of this name, forever to be associated with 
the wars of Hannibal, and onward to the sta- 
tion of San Germano, where we see, on the 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY, 1 69 

height above, the renowned Monastery of 
Mount Casino. We had a strong desire to 
visit that palatial convent and explore its li- 
brary and archives ; but, as in the case of those 
temples at Psestum, we could not stop to 
look at everything, and so we journeyed on to 
Rome. At length the Alban Hills came into 
view, and then we saw the ruined arches of 
the ancient aqueducts, and the Appian Way, 
and soon entered within the lofty walls, and 
found our way to the Hotel de Paris. 

One gratification to me was to have first 
approached this imperial city from the south, 
although I did not, like St. Paul, enter by the 
Appian Way. I found, too, as others have 
often said, that visiting Rome is unlike visiting 
any other city. So much of it has been made 
familiar from childhood that, to enter and look 
upon its ruins or its famous buildings, is like 
coming home. Who is not familiar with pic- 
tures of the Forum and the Coliseum and the 
Pantheon and St. Peter's ? The very location 
of the Seven Hills is known to the youngest 
tyro in ancient history. I shall not attempt, 
therefore, in these pages, any general descrip- 
tion of the thousand and one sights of Rome. 
I put most of my time in at the old Roman 



lyo RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

Forum, and tried to make myself very familiar 
with every object between the Capitol and the 
Coliseum. Next in interest was St. Peter's 
and the Vatican. After these, I think espe- 
cially of the Palace of the Caesars on the Pala- 
tine, the Baths of Caracalla, the Churches of 
St. John Lateran and St. Maria Maggiore, the 
Pantheon, and the Borghese Palace and villa. 
These, to be sure, are only a few out of many 
objects of remarkable attraction ; but they re- 
main fast in my memory, while others of per- 
haps equal fame have left no such deep im-^^ 
pression. ^^H 

Whether one contemplates a short stay or a ^ 
long one, it is advisable for him to embrace 
the first opportunity of a three or four hours* 
ride about the city. The ordinary guide-books, 
or any well-informed cab-driver, may indicate 
a route sufficiently comprehensive. Starting 
from the Forum of Trajan, for example, one 
would do well to pass first through the whole 
length of the Via del Corso, and go up on the 
Pincian Hill, whence the whole city is seen at 
a glance, and you can note the most conspicu- 
ous edifices, and the Campagna beyond, even 
to the distant sea. Returning from the hill, 
drive by the Mausoleum of Augustus, and the 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 171 

Borghese Palace, and thence to the bridge and 
Castle of St. Angelo — the latter once the tomb 
of Hadrian— and so on to the Piazza of St. 
Peter, where it would be well to alight for ten 
minutes, and walk into the vast church, and 
get one good first impression of its immen- 
sity; thence drive down the west side of the 
Tiber, through the Via del lyongara, recross 
the river by the Ponte Quattro Capi and the 
Island of St. Bartholomew, take a passing 
glance at the Arch of Janus, the Cloaca Max- 
ima, and the Temple of Vesta, and so pass on 
through the site of the old Circus Maximus 
around the southern and eastern sides of the 
Palatine, and approach the Coliseum through 
the Arch of Constantine. Then, turning to the 
left, proceed through the Arch of Titus to the 
Roman Forum, and compass it by way of the 
Capitoline Hill, and, returning on the opposite 
side of the Forum, pass the Coliseum on the 
north, and drive to the Church of St. John 
lyateran, and take a look at the Alban Hills 
from the piazza in front of the church. From 
this point go northward to the Church of St. 
Maria Maggiore, and around by the piazza and 
Palace of the Quirinal, from which place it will 
probably be but a short step to your hotel or 



172 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

pensio7i. Such an extensive drive through the 
most interesting sections of the city will sup- 
ply a general idea of the whole, and serve 
as an excellent introduction to all the more 
particular excursions one may make after, 
wards. 

The one great church in Rome, which, of 
all others in the world, I had desired to see, 
was that of St. Peter. The remembrance of 
it now, after the lapse of years, is very vivid, 
and the thought of its vastness yet impresses 
me. There is that far-reaching central nave, 
which, upon entering, opens like a new world 
upon the view; there are those wonderful 
arches and costly panels of rare marble, and 
sculptured cherubs and angels, which at first 
appear small, but prove, on approaching, to be 
of colossal size; and there is that central 
altar and lofty canopy, where many golden 
lamps are always burning; and that indescriba- 
ble dome, supported by its mighty piers ; and 
the immense transepts, and the side chapels, — 
and all in such admirable proportion that one 
is obliged to take the actual measure of some 
parts to obtain a full impression of the vast in- 
terior. One may still quote with much satis- 



I 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 173 

faction the lines of Byron, written in the ear- 
lier part of this century : 

"But lo, the dome, the vast and wondrous dome, 
To which Diana's marvel was a cell, 
Christ's mighty shrine above his martyr's tomb ! 
I have beheld the Bphesian's miracle : 
Its columns strew the wilderness, and dwell 
The hyena and the jackal in their shade ; 
I have beheld Sophia's bright roofs swell 
Their glittering mass i' the sun, and have sur- 
veyed 
Its sanctuary the while the usurping Moslem prayed. 

But thou, of temples old, or altars new, 
Standest alone, with nothing like to thee, 
Worthiest of God, the holy and the true. 
Since Zion's desolation, when that he 
Forsook his former city, what could be 
Of earthly structures, in his honor piled, 
Of a sublimer aspect ? Majesty, 
Power, glor}^ strength, and beauty, all are aisled 
In this eternal ark of worship undefiled." 

But I am bound to record that there were 
some things about St. Sophia which impressed 
me more deeply than anything in St. Peter's, 
and I failed to feel in either place that I was 
in an '* ark of worship undefiled." I confess to 
the feeling that this most wonderful ecclesias- 
tical edifice of Christendom appears, as some 



174 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

one has expressed it, more like an aesthetic 
glorification of Roman Catholicism than a true 
representation of the spirit and power of the 
gospel of Christ. Not in the churches, nor in 
the monuments of art for which Rome is cele- 
brated, need we look for the purest symbol- 
ism of the Christian faith. We will find much 
more of this in the depths of the old cata- 
combs, the burial-places of the early Christians, 
beyond the city walls. Therein the figures of 
the anchor, the vine, the palm-branch, the dove, 
and the phoenix, express, in simple but most 
touching form, the hopes and triumphs of the 
noble army of ^martyrs, of whom the world 
was not worthy. 

To enjoy either a short or a long visit in 
Rome, one ought to be a good walker. Hav- 
ing informed himself in advance of what he 
most wishes to see, he should form a definite 
plan of daily procedure. St. Peter's and the 
Vatican should be visited many times. The 
Forum and its vicinity should be the place of 
many a morning and evening walk. Such 
churches as St. Pietro in Vincoli, St. Maria 
Maggiore, and the Pantheon can be visited in 
the early morning, before the great museums 
and art-galleries are open, and the Coliseum 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 1 75 

should be seen at sunrise, at sunset, and by 
moonlight. Those who can endure it will 
find it a delightful experience to take a cab to 
the Baths of Caracalla, dismiss the driver there, 
and, having explored the Baths, return on 
foot between the Coelian and Aventine Hills, 
examining leisurely the various objects of in- 
terest on the south and west of the Palatine, 
and so proceeding northward to the Corso. 
Happy the man who is able to walk by the 
Appian Way some four or five miles south of 
the city, and thence return without any obli-. 
gations to driver or guide ; and happier still 
he who can extend his foot-journey to the Al- 
ban Hills, and, lodging there for a night, 
spend the next day in rambles over all its his- 
toric places. But every traveler must adapt 
himself to his own time and tastes. Many 
things of the most absorbing interest to some 
persons have no attraction for others. It is, 
as I have said, no part of the purpose of these 
pages to describe the multitudinous sights and 
treasures of the Eternal City. I will only add 
here a few general impressions. 

I. Rome links the thoughtful traveler to 
the buried past. Not to the remotest antiquity, 
but especially to the beginnings of our Chris- 



176 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

tian era, and a few centuries before. One can 
not stand in the Forum, or in the Coliseum, 
or walk amid the massive ruins of the Palace 
of the Caesars, without feeling himself drawn 
into the life and thought of that olden time 
when Rome was mistress of the world. 

2. One also here feels deeply how Rome has 
affected all modern civilization by the laws and 
ideas she has transmitted to the Western na- 
tions. Nor can one easily put aside the 
thought that all the strife and warfare and ri- 
valries of the modern States of Europe are an 
inheritance of the old Roman spirit. 

'' Hate and debate Rome through the world hath 
spread ; 
Yet Roma amor is, if backward read. 
Then is it strange Rome hate should foster? No; 
For out of backward love all hate doth grow." 

3. The Protestant here looks with a pained 
heart upon the power and the pitiable super- 
stitions of Roman Catholicism. The magnifi- 
cence of St. Peter's and the inimitable treas- 
ures of the Vatican are a poor compensation 
for the ignorance and poverty and squalor and 
baptized idolatry which the papal system has 
entailed upon its millions of devotees. 

4. It seems to me that ''young Italy," though 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 177 

freed from many galling chains, is still far 
from the liberty and glory which some have 
ascribed to her. The papal yoke still presses 
like a vampire on her life, and the evangelical 
churches and missions exhibit no life and 
power that promise hopeful results in the near 
future. O for an Italian Wesley or Whitefield, 
to go, Paul-like, into the streets and market- 
places, and sing, and preach, and ''dispute," if 
need be, that the masses of these priest-ridden 
people might hear a pure gospel of salvation 
through Christ alone ! The people perish for 
lack of knowledge. No pastor visits from 
house to house ; no evangelist goes after the 
people; no voice is heard crying in this wil- 
derness of christened heathenism loud enough 
to attract any general attention. 

Fl^ORBNCK. 

On our way northward from Rome we pass 
through many a scene of loveliness and his- 
toric interest. There is old Perugia, the quaint 
Etruscan city, set upon a hill, and farther on 
the silvery lake of Thrasymene, so famous in the 
wars of Hannibal : 

'' For there the Carthaginian's warlike wiles 
Come back before nie, as his skill beguiles 
The host between the mountains and the shore." 

12 



178 



RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 



But we hasten on to Florence, ''brightest star 
of star-bright Italy," the city of the famous 
family of Medici, the city of Savonarola, the 
Athens of Italy, where one may yet behold the 
very houses where lived Michael Angelo, and 
Dante, and Machiavelli, and Galileo, and Amer- 
icus Vespucius, and Guicciardini. 

The visitor at Florence should embrace the 
first opportunity to obtain the wide and beau- 
tiful view of the city, and valley of the Arno, 
from the heights about the Poggio Imperiale. 
A short drive or walk outside the Porta Ro- 
mana will bring him to the new Piazza of Mi- 
chael Angelo, adorned by a great bronze copy 
of that sculptor's ''David." From this spot 
there is a glorious outlook over the city and 
suburbs of Florence, and to "the top of Fie- 
sole." Near this fascinating spot is the Tower 
of Galileo, from which, at evening-time, 
"through optic-glass the Tuscan artist" was 
wont to view the heavens. All about this 
drive the most charming views of hill and val- 
ley meet the eye, and one is better prepared 
for examination of the sights in the city after 
having first obtained this panoramic view of 
the outlying region. Especially, for this rea- 
son, should we ascend the hill of Bellosguardo ; 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 1 79 

for that point, as Mrs. Browning's '' Aurora 
lycigh" declares, — 

" Is a tower that keeps 
A post of double observation o'er 
The valley of the Ariio (holding as a hand 
The outspread city), straight toward Fiesole, 
And Mount Morello, and the setting sun, — 
The Vallombrosian Mountains to the right, 
Which sunrise fills as full as crystal cups, 
Wine-filled, and red to the brim because it's red." 

In taking the tour of the city we begin 
most naturally at the Piazza della Signoria. 
Here is the old Palazzo Vecchio, with its high 
clock-tower, and by it the magnificent Foun- 
tain of Neptune and an imposing equestrian 
statue of Cosmo. Notable palaces and houses 
face this open square ; but the most interesting, 
perhaps, of all its sights is the Loggia dei 
lyanzi, that most beautiful of all the open ar- 
cades of Italy, more famous for its groups of 
exquisite sculpture than for the grandeur of 
its lofty arches. This now beautiful and at- 
tractive center of Florentine life has witnessed 
many a bloody tragedy. More than one victim 
of popular wrath has been flung from the pal- 
ace windows, and dashed upon the stones be- 
low. Here the assassin's dagger has done its 
foul work. Here Guelph and Ghibelline have 



l8o RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

fought in bitter contest. Here, in 1498, Savon- 
arola was tortured and strangled, and then 
burned to ashes. 

From this historic piazza it is but a step to 
the Portico of the Uffizi. The very streets 
about this part of the city are filled with treas- 
ures of art. We enter the Uffizi Palace, and 
find on the first floor the National Library, with 
its three hundred thousand volumes and eight 
thousand manuscripts. We ascend to the sec- 
ond floor, and come to the world-renowned gal- 
lery which boasts not a few of the masterpieces 
of ancient and medieval art. We hasten on 
through the long corridors, and enter that fa- 
mous room known as the Tribune, where we 
find five pieces of sculpture which would be 
sufficient to give any art-collection a world-wide 
celebrity. These are the Venus de Medici, the 
ApoUino, the Slave Whetting his Knife, the 
Wrestlers, and the Dancing Fawn. Here, too, 
are some of the finest paintings of Michael 
Angelo, Raphael, Titian, Andrea del Sarto, and 
Correggio. We wander on through halls of 
bronzes and medals and coins and vases, which 
bewilder with their number and beauty and 
variety. We journey on through the passage 
which leads over the Arno to the Pitti Palace, 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY, l8l 

and find the whole way lined with portraits of 
popes and kings and princes. The Pitti Palace 
is itself another vast collection of treasures of 
art, and the Boboli Gardens adjoining are a 
paradise of indescribable loveliness. 

Returning from these palaces of art, we re- 
cross the Piazza della Signoria, and visit the 
great cathedral and its bell-tower, and the Bap- 
tistery, whose eastern gates, according to a say- 
ing of Michael Angelo, *' were worthy to be 
the gates of paradise." In this Baptistery I lin- 
gered long, one Sunday evening, to witness the 
baptism of children by the Roman priests. A 
large company of parents, with their infants, 
waited in patience, as one after another went 
through the process of registering names and 
dates of birth, and many a mother looked worn 
and weary as she waited for her turn to come. 
The officiating priest was in no hurry, and 
though he had many assistants about him he 
seemed disposed to protract the service as long 
as possible. At length, when a registration 
was duly made, and the sponsor's vows were 
taken, he would take the infant in his hands, 
and, holding its head over a large laver, pour 
the consecrated water thereon three times in 
the name of the Holy Trinity, but, as it seemed 



1 82 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

to me, with such lack of solemnity as to take 
largel}^ from the value of the form of service. 
Not faraway from this group of magnificent 
buildings is the Church of St. Lorenzo, where 
we find the tombs and monuments of the 
Medici. Here are the celebrated statue of Lo- 
renzi de Medici and its associate allegorical 
figures, Day and Night, Morning and Evening, 
which have been praised with most extravagant 
eulogy by some, but criticised by others as un- 
worthy of their fame. The poet Rogers wrote : 

"There the gigantic shapes of Night and Da}-, 
Turned into stone, rest everlastingly, 
Yet still are breathing ; and shed around at noon 
A twofold influence, only to be felt, — 
A light, a darkness, mingling each with each ; 
Both, and yet neither. There, from age to age, 
Two ghosts are sitting on their sepulchers. 
That is the Duke Lorenzo. Mark him well ! 
He meditates, his head upon his hand. 
What from beneath his helm-like bonnet scowls ? 
Is it a face, or but an eyeless skull ? 
'T is lost in shade ; yet like the basilisk 
It fascinates and is intolerable. 
His mien is noble, most majestical." 

But of all the notable churches of Florence, 
the one which most attracted me was the Santa 
Croce, the Church of the Holy Cross. Not for 
its exterior or interior ornament ; not for an}^ 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 1 83 

peculiarity^ of structure ; not for its legends 
and pictures of the finding of " the true cross ;'* 
but rather because this church is the "West- 
minster Abbe}' " and the " Pantheon " of Flor- 
ence. It is enough to cite the inimitable lines 
of B3ron: 

" In Santa Croce's hoh- precincts lie 

Ashes which make it holier ; dust which is 

Even in itself an imniortalit}-, 

Though there were nothing save the past and this, 

The particle of those subUniities 

Which have relapsed to chaos: — here repose 

Angelo's, Alfieri's bones, and his, 

The starry Galileo, with his woes ; 
Here Machiavelli's earth returned to whence it 
rose." 

Pisa, Genoa, and Milan. 

But we tear ourselves away from beautiful 
Florence and go on to Pisa, where we stop only 
long enough to take a good look at the Cathe- 
dral, the Baptister\^ the Campo Santo, and the 
Leaning Tower. We linger awhile in front of 
those great bronze doors, and look in at the 
hanging bronze lamp, from which Galileo de- 
rived suggestive lessons in physics. We admire 
the architectural elegance of the Baptistery 
and its lofty dome. We look upon the holy 
earth brought by ship-loads from Palestine to 



1 84 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

furnish the burial-ground of the Campo Santo, 
and walk around the vast corridor, and observe 
its notable monuments of sculpture. But the 
most interesting object of all the sights in Pisa 
is the Campanile, "or " Leaning Tower." This 
round tower, one hundred and eighty feet 
high, inclines from the perpendicular of its 
base some fourteen feet. Whether this pecul- 
iarity is the result of a defective foundation or 
a part of the original design, has long been an 
unsettled question. But some believe that it 
resulted from a defect in the foundation, dis- 
covered, however, before the tower was half 
completed, and remedied to some extent by 
making the columns of the upper stories higher 
on one side than the other. Whatever the 
cause or reason of its leaning, there that unique 
marble structure has stood for six hundred 
years, a wonder to the thousands and tens of 
thousands who have looked upon it as upon 
some beautiful but mysterious sphinx. 

From Pisa we journeyed on to Genoa, and 
there tarried for a night, and long enough to 
take a hasty look at a few of the famous palaces, 
the Cathedral of St. Lorenzo, and the Monu- 
ment to Columbus. A look out into the har- 
bor, with its countless vessels great and small, 




A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 185 

is something long to be remembered, and ac- 
counts for the number and magnificence of 
such palaces as adorn the Strada Nuovo, the 
Strada Nuovissima, and the Strada Balbi. The 
commerce of this celebrated sea-port is more 
than sufficient to create a city of palaces. 

From Genoa we passed on northward to 
Milan, and spent two days in looking over its 
numerous attractions. We drove out to the 
triumphal Arch of Peace, begun by the great 
Napoleon, and took a hasty glance into the 
Palace of Science and Art, with its picture-gal- 
lery and archaeological museum. We cast a 
longing gaze at the great Ambrosian Library, 
and wished for years to search its varied 
treasures. We went into the Church of St. 
Ambrose, and saw where the old Kings of 
lyombardy were wont to receive the iron 
crown. We visited the Dominican Convent, 
the wall of which still bears, though damaged 
in many ways, that masterpiece of lyconardo 
da Vinci, ''The I^ast Supper." But more mag- 
nificent than any other sight in Milan, and that 
which will longest remain in memory, is the 
many-spired cathedral, the labor of ages in 
one vast pile of marble. I climbed the great 
central spire, which is over three hundred feet 



1 86 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

ill height, and looked down upon the thousands 

of white marble statues which stand like so 

many guardian angels on the pinnacles below. 

From that high point of view one takes in, at 

a single sweep of the eye, the whole outlying 

region of Italy and the towering Alps and 

Apennines. 

Vknick. 

From Milan I went by rail direct to Venice, 
and, having first traversed the Grand Canal 
by gondola from the railroad station to the 
Church of St. Maria della Salute, I took up my 
quarters nearly opposite that church of the 
bold and handsome dome, in the Grand Hotel 
d'ltalie, and settled down in great delight that 
at last I was permitted to spend some days in 
that city of the watery streets, of which I had 
heard and read so much. I knew that 1113^ 
hotel was in the immediate vicinity of the 
Piazza of St. Mark, and although it was al- 
ready evening time, I could not rest until I had 
first walked about that glorious square and 
taken a look at the gorgeous church, the high 
Campanile, the Doges' Palace, and the Bridge 
of Sighs. And I found that the evening hours 
were the time of all others to visit St. Mark's 
Square. Then and there one sees the pleasure- 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY. 187 

seeking crowds of Venice at their best. And 
so, in fact, within an hour and a half after my 
arrival, I had seen the great sights of Venice. 
There are, indeed, many other very beautiful 
and interesting things to see. There are a 
score of delightful excursions all about the 
neighboring islands. There are the inviting 
public gardens, and the arsenal, and the impos- 
ing Church of John and Paul, "the Westmin- 
ster Abbey of Venice," containing the vaults 
and monuments of the doges, and the Church 
of the Frari, which contains the tomb of Ca- 
nova; but the center and circumference of 
greatest interest are the places I have named 
as the great sights, which may be compre- 
hended in two terms, the Canal and St. Mark's. 
The Grand Canal, which is nearly two miles 
long, winds like a crooked serpent through the 
city, and almost doubles back upon itself. It 
is a great thoroughfare of traffic, lined on both 
sides with numerous palaces and churches, 
and on a moonlit night presents a weird ap- 
pearance, as hundreds of gondolas glide to and 
fro over its gleaming water. Pleasure-parties 
love to linger along its winding way until late 
into the night, and their merry songs are some- 
times heard long after the midnight hour. I 



1 88 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, ^^ 

sailed its entire length at early morn, at mid- ™ 
day, and by moonlight, and failed not with 
each trip to observe things new and striking. 
I ever found the gondolier an amiable, clever, 
and accommodating guide. 

But the Piazza of St. Mark, and the various 
buildings associated with it, demand the trav- 
eler's chief attention. The great square is 
nearly six hundred feet in length, by a little 
less than half as broad, but widens towards 
the east. It is surrounded on three sides by 
imposing palaces, which were once the resi- 
dences of the officers of Government, and the 
ground-floors consist of arcades opening on the 
square, and crowded with shops and restau- 
rants. In these places we may see the princi- 
pal commercial activity of the modern town, 
especially the retail trade. At the northeast 
corner stands the conspicuous Clock Tower. 
The dial is in the middle of the tower, and 
decorated with the signs of the zodiac, through 
which the sun travels in regular course. Two 
black figures in bronze stand on the top of the 
building, and strike the hours on a loud-sound- 
ing bell. On the opposite corner, to the south, 
rises the lofty Campanile to the height of three 
hundred and twenty-two feet. The ajscent is 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY, 189 

by an easy incline pavement, up which, it is 
said, Napoleon once rode on horseback. The 
prospect from the summit of this tower en- 
ables one to take in the whole situation of 
Venice, and the outlying region as far as eye 
can reach. 

But the most notable structure is the Church 
or Cathedral of St. Mark, fronting the piazza 
on the east, and giving it its name. Its gor- 
geous fagade is without a parallel in the world. 
We will do our readers a favor by quoting the 
following description by Ruskin: ''A multi- 
tude of pillars and white domes, clustered into 
a long, low pyramid of colored light — a treas- 
ure-heap, it seems, partly of gold, and partly 
of opal and mother-of-pearl, hollowed beneath 
into five great vaulted arches, ceiled with fair 
mosaic, and beset with sculptures of alabaster^ 
clear as amber and delicate as ivory. Around 
the walls of the porches are set pillars of vari- 
egated stones, jasper and porphyry, and deep- 
green serpentine spotted with flakes of snow, 
and marbles that half refuse and half yield to 
the sunshine, Cleopatra-like, 'their bluest veins 
to kiss;' the shadow, as it steals back from 
them, revealing line after line of azure undu- 
lation ; their capitals rich with interwoven 



I90 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

tracery, rooted knots of herbage, and drifting 
leaves of acanthus and vine, and mystical 
signs, air beginning and ending in the cross ; 
and above them, in broad archivolts, a contin- 
uous chain of language and life — angels, and 
the signs of heaven, and the labors of men, 
each in its appointed season upon the earth; 
and above these, another range of glittering 
pinnacles, mixed with white arches, edged with 
scarlet flowers, a confusion of delight, amidst 
which the breasts of the Greek horses are seen 
blazing in their breadth of golden strength, 
and the St. Mark's Lion, lifted on a blue field 
covered with stars, until at last, as if in ec- 
stas}^, the crests of the arches break into a 
marble foam, and toss themselves far into the 
blue sky in flashes and wreaths of sculptured 
spray, as if the breakers on the Lido shore 
had been frost-bound before they fell, and the 
sea-nymphs had inlaid them with coral and 
amethyst." 

It is enough to say that the interior of this 
medieval structure is in keeping with its ex- 
terior. There are thousands of thousands of 
square feet of rich mosaics, and columns, and 
slabs of various marbles, and statues, and mon- 
uments, and wonders of art. Here, as in other 



A TOUR THROUGH ITALY, 191 

places, one becomes oppressed with a sense of 
their seemingly infinite number and variety. 

On the south of this cathedral is the great 
Palace of the Doges, its west and south sides 
presenting those rich colonnades, one above 
the other, which have been a thousand times 
described by word and photograph. There is 
the spacious court-yard, and the Giant's Stair- 
case, and the numerous halls with their master- 
pieces of painting, and treasures of art and 
archaeology. On the east side of this palace, 
extending high over a canal, is the famous 
Bridge of Sighs; and near the southwestern 
corner, overlooking the Molo, are the two 
granite columns, one of which is surmounted 
by the Winged lyion, and the other by St. 
Theodore standing on a crocodile. Between 
these columns has rushed out many a human 
life in blood, for this was once the place of 
public executions. Opposite the Ducal Palace 
to the west, across the so-called Piazzetta, is 
that portion of the beautiful Palazzo Reale, 
which once served as the royal library. Its 
colonnades and graceful arches are in admi- 
rable keeping with all the magnificent display 
of architecture round about. 

I could not walk about the broad places of 



192 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

Venice, and look upon her monuments of past 
glory, without a deep feeling of the certain 
perishableness of all human ambition and 
pride. For eleven centuries the Venetians 
were a power in the world of European and 
Eastern politics and commerce; but after the 
capture of Constantinople by the Turks, and 
the ocean discoveries of Vasco da Gama and 
Columbus, the tides of commerce turned away 
from this city of the hundred islands. But 
what memories of doges and knights and nobles 
linger here ! 

"A thousand years their cloudy wings expand 
Around me, and a dying glory smiles 
O'er the far times, when many a subject land 
Ivooked to the winged lion's marble piles, 
Where Venice sat in state, throned on her hundred 
isles. 

Before St. Mark still glow his steeds of brass, 
• Their gilded collars glittering in the sun; 
But is not Doria's menace come to pass? 
Are they not bridled? Venice, lost and won, 
Her thirteen hundred years of freedom done, 
Sinks, like a sea-weed, into whence she rose." 



(Efjaphr XI. 

SWITZERLAND AND THE ALPS. 
ROM Venice I returned to Verona, and 



^^ thence went northward over the Tyrol 
U'^XET"^ Alps, by way of the Brenner Pass, to 
Innsbruck. I stopped a day and night at 
Trent, situated in the midst of magnificent 
Alpine scenery, where one might linger and 
ramble with increasing delight for many a day. 
I went into the old Church of St. Maria Mag- 
giore, where the celebrated Council of Trent 
held its sessions for almost twenty years — 1545 
to 1563. I sat down on one of its ancient 
seats, and meditated on the methods and power 
of Romanism, until I was admonished that the 
shadows of night were falling and the church 
was about to be closed. The cathedral of this 
town deserves mention. The lions at its en- 
trance, the porphyry tombstone in one of the 
transepts, and the lofty dome, are objects which 
attract the attention of every traveler. The 
railway from this place down to Innsbruck 
passes through Alpine scenery of most inter- 



194 GAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

esting character. Bridges over frightful gorges, 
tunnels through the mountains, enchanting 
views of valley and hillside and foaming riv- 
ulet, little villages nestling in the clefts of the 
rocks, and larger towns beautiful for situation, 
afford a continuous series of surprises and 
delights. 

These Eastern Alps abound in magnificent 
scenery, and Innsbruck is an excellent point 
from which to take a variety of excursions 
into the regions round about. But I hasten 
on to the Lake of Constance, and, pausing at 
Lindau just long enough to look at the old 
Roman tower by the bridge, and the hand- 
some lighthouse, and the marble lions, and the 
bronze statue of King Max II, I step on board 
one of the little steamboats which ply these 
lovely waters, bound for the city of Constance. 
Although this is not the most beautiful lake 
of Switzerland, it w^as the first of them w^hich 
I had up to that time seen, and it seemed to me 
then to lack no charms. The light-green water 
dazzled in the sunbeams; the winding shores, 
and the high lands beyond, and especially the 
towering Alpine ranges in the distance, and 
their snow-capped summits, opened a vision of 
beauty never to be forgotten. 



SWITZERLAND AND THE ALPS. 195 

The student of ecclesiastical history finds 
in Constance a number of places of peculiar 
interest. Here the great Council was held in 
1414-1418, at which, we are told, the Emperor 
Sigismund, Pope John XXIII, and several 
hundred cardinals, bishops, princes, counts, 
and doctors, and several thousand priests, as- 
sembled, and sought to settle the quarrels 
of rival popes, and to suppress the Hussite 
heresy. The Kaufhaus, or market-hall, in 
which the Council met, is a quaint old build- 
ing, and its upper room is adorned with a num- 
ber of wall-paintings, three of which are de- 
voted to John Huss. The first represents him 
in the act of making his protest before the 
Council, in the second he appears in chains, 
and in the third he is seen burning at the 
stake^ In the cathedral, not far away, is shown 
a stone slab, on which Huss is said to have 
stood when he received the sentence of death; 
and the house he occupied during his stay in 
Constance is marked by a tablet bearing his 
portrait. But to the Protestant pilgrim the 
mOvSt sacred spot at Constance is the inclosure, 
half a mile to the west of the Kaufhaus, in the 
midst of which lies the huge boulder marking 
the spot where both Huss and Jerome suffered 



196 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

martyrdom. The place is approached through 
a long avenue of trees, and is visited by thou- 
sands annually. Almost five centuries have 
passed away since these Hussite reformers were 
burned, and their ashes cast upon the waters; 
but their memory and opinions are to-day 
honored in all lands, and spreading more and 
more, while those who condemned them, if not 
all forgotten, are no more honored than the 
brutes that chanced to die when they did. 

A short run by rail, through most beautiful 
views of lake and field and orchard and wooded 
highland, brought me to Schaffhausen and the 
Falls of the Rhine. Once told of it, one ever 
remembers that the great bell of the Schaff- 
hausen Cathedral bears the significant inscrip- 
tion : Vivos voco^ 7}wrtiios pla7igo,fiilg2iraf7'a7igo 
(I call the living, I bewail the dead, I break 
the lightning). In going from this old town 
to the falls I adopted the true and independent 
style of the happy tourist, and made the jour- 
ney on foot. It was no fatiguing walk — being 
only a distance of about two miles — and it af- 
forded a delightful view of the river as it ap- 
proaches the rocks above the main cataract, 
and begins to leap and foam as if preparing for 
the fearful plunge it is so soon to take. I 



SWITZERLAND AND THE ALPS, 1 97 

crossed the long bridge just above the main 
falls, and could see the rapid rushing waters 
gliding along their rocky bed and disappearing 
over the precipice. The grounds of the Hotel 
Schloss lyaufen command the most impressive 
views of the river and the falls. Foot-paths 
lead to all desirable points of view, the most 
noted being that from the iron platform, which 
is builded out immediately above the wildest 
portion of the foaming cataract. This plat- 
form continually trembles by reason of the 
rushing flood, the waters plunge and foam and 
roar, and send their spray afar, and at certain 
hours of a sunshiny day innumerable rainbows 
crown the scene. In order to take in all the 
views, we cross the river below the falls, and 
take a little boat to a great rock that rises out 
of the waters near the base of the cataract. 
From this point one can survey the irregular 
ledges of rock over which the water passes, 
and the successive and varied leaps of the river 
as it rushes madly down its descent of nearly 
one hundred feet. 

Another delightful ride through picturesque 
landscapes brought me to Zurich, the city of 
Zwingli, and the literary center of German 
Switzerland. For beauty of situation, few 



198 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

places can be found that leave so little more to 
be desired. The very suburbs are beautiful. 
The "pale-green lake" is a never- failing inspi- 
ration. The highly-cultivated country around 
invites the eye and charms the fancy. The 
Alps on Alps that tower afar, and seem to min- 
gle with the clouds, combine with all the other 
sights to make one feel that he is in an en- 
chanted land. I walked the whole length of 
the Bahnhofs Strasse, and crossed a dozen times 
that memorable Quaibriicke. I sailed to and 
fro over the lake as far as Rapperschw^yl. I 
lingered in a dreamy maze about those High 
Promenades among the lime-trees, I ascended 
to the top of Uetliberg, and almost wished that 
I might stay there for 3'ears. 

The objects of chief interest within the city 
are the Lindenhof, in the center of the towm, 
the eminence on which the first inhabitants 
erected their dwellings; the Gross-Miinster, 
with its ancient cloisters and monuments, where 
Zwdngli ministered for many years; the City 
Library, where one may see the Bible used by 
Zwingli, and the marginal annotations which 
he made; also autograph letters of Zwingli, 
Lad}^ Jane Grey, and Frederick the Great, and 
others of like celebrity; the Arsenal, where are 



SWITZERLAND AND THE ALPS. 1 99 

shown the various weapons and flags of former 
times, and the battle-ax, sword, coat of mail, 
and helmet which were worn by the great 
Swiss reformer when he fell upon the fatal field 
of Kappel. The university building, known 
as the Polytechnicuni, commands a magnificent 
view over the city, the lake, and the mountains 
beyond, and the cluster of various schools in 
that section of the city makes it a place of par- 
ticular attraction. 

After several days of delightful sojourn at 
Zurich, I started for the Rigi. The railroad 
runs amid scenes of bewitching loveliness from 
Zurich to Zug, whence a little steamer took me 
over the lake to Arth, at the base of the Rigi. 
The Lake of Zug, some eight miles long and 
two miles wide, has, on its northern bank, the 
remains of a number of the old ''lake-dwell- 
ings," which have so interested inquirers into 
man's antiquity. The views of several mount- 
ains and snow-capped peaks, as seen from the 
lake, are very fine. The ascent of the Rigi, by 
the mountain railway from Arth, affords many 
a pleasing outlook, but does not permit one to 
see the glorious panorama visible from the 
summit until he arrives there, when the whole 
scene bursts upon him in one bewildering 



200 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

vision. From the Kulm, or summit, you look 
down upon the Lake of Lucerne on the one 
side, and the Zug on the other, while eight or 
ten other lakes appear like so many sheets of 
silver in the distance. Many of the most fa- 
mous pinnacles of the Alps are visible, such 
as the Jungfrau, and the Eiger, and the 
Schreckhorn, and the still loftier Finsteraar- 
horn. Nearer at hand, across the Lucerne 
Lake, rises the bold and rugged Mount Pilatus, 
and stands like a sentinel over the surround- 
ing shores. It was my good fortune to spend 
a night upon the Rigi, and witness thence both 
a sunset and a sunrise without clouds. Glori- 
ously sank the great luminary behind the Jura 
Mountains, amid a gorgeous halo of crimson 
and gold, and we lingered long to watch the 
fading tints as they disappeared in the gather- 
jug darkness of night. Before four o'clock 
next morning we were wakened by the moun- 
tain shepherd's horn, and hastened out to be- 
hold the twilight breaking over the eastern 
hills. Glorious beyond description was that 
memorable sunrise, and, in the spell of its 
magical influence and suggestions, we seemed 
to be witnessing the creation of a new heaven 
and a new earth. 



SWITZERLAND AND THE ALPS. 20I 

I descended from the Rigi by the mountahi 
railway to Vitzenau, and took the tour of that 
most beautiful of all the lakes of Europe, the 
Vierzvaldstatter See, Everything in the way 
of mountain grandeur, and beautiful slopes, 
and villas nestling in the rocks, and deep ra- 
vines opening up from the water's edge, and 
weird grottoes in the rocky cliffs, and the St. 
Gothard Railway with its wonderful tunnels 
and openings on the lake, — these, and a thou- 
sand other things I can not name, make a sail 
around this Lake of Lucerne one of the most 
delightful excursions in the world. We are 
shown at one place the famous spot where, 
tradition says, William Tell sprang out of 
Gessler's boat and made his escape; and near 
the spot, half-hidden in the trees, is the little 
building known as ''Tell's Chapel." At Lu- 
cerne we stop long enough to look at the fa- 
mous Dying Lion, transfixed by a broken lance. 
This lion is nearly thirty feet in length, and 
hewn out of the solid rock. Adjoining this 
splendid work — which owes its conception to 
the genius of Thorwaldsen — is the remarkable 
Glacier-garden, where a large number of deep 
holes have been worn in the rocks by the ac- 
tion of the ice and water of a former age. 



202 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

From Fluelen, at the opposite end of the lake, 
I made a little trip to Altdorf, where, accord- 
ing to tradition, Tell shot the apple from the 
head of his son. A gigantic statue of the 
archer is erected on the spot where Tell is 
supposed to have stood, and a fountain, a hun- 
dred and fifty yards distant, marks the place 
occupied by the boy. Having seen all this, 
how could I ever thereafter doubt the histor- 
icity of the story of the great Swiss hero ! 

From Fleulen to Goschenen we take the 
wonderful St. Gothard Railway up through the 
valley of the Reuss. We pass in sight of pic- 
turesque fields, and many fruit-trees, and some 
ruined castles; and then up, up, up those 
winding ways, across iron bridges, under which 
the rushing waters foam and leap in beautiful 
cascades. On a distant hill-top we see the 
ruins of what is known as one of Gessler's 
castles. Then we enter, one after another, 
those wonderful ''loop-tunnels;" and after 
winding about in the darkness, we emerge on 
a higher point of the mountain, and behold in 
surprise that we have made no progress for- 
ward, but have simply risen to a higher eleva- 
tion. And so we climb the mighty hills, amid 
continual surprises of charming views and 



SWITZERLAND AND THE ALPS, 203 

frightful passes over bridge and cliff, until we 
reach Goschenen, near the entrance of the 
great St. Gothard Tunnel, which runs over 
into Italy. This tunnel is more than a mile 
longer than that of Mont Cenis. 

At Goschenen we leave the cars and take dili- 
gence through Andermatt and Hospenthal, and 
over the Furka Pass to the Rhone Glacier. 
The ascent from the railroad to Andermatt 
should be traveled on foot if one would fully 
appreciate the wild and rocky scenery. Huge 
granite rocks tow^er almost perpendicularly 
above you, deep gorges open below, and the leap- 
ing waters of the Reuss dash along and sound 
their passage down the lonely way. The 
''Devil's Bridge " is at a point where the scen- 
ery is grandest and most wild. The water falls 
a hundred feet over the rocks, and the wind 
often carries the spray far over bridge and road 
and mountain-side. Several fierce battles have 
been fought at this lone pass in the mountains, 
and these wild waters have been reddened with 
the blood of the slain. Andermatt is famous 
as a resort for invalids, and (whatever may be 
thought of the strange association) for a char- 
nel-house adorned with inscribed human skulls. 
At Hospenthal we see a fair specimen of an 



204 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

Alpine town. Here winter lasts a large part 
of the year, and the simple and unambitious 
populace go about their quiet walks undis- 
turbed by the noise and conflict of the world 
beyond their mountain homes. We pass an 
old tower, said to be the remains of a Lombard 
castle, and follow the mountain stream upward 
towards its sources. The road winds along the 
valley and up the mountain-side, commanding 
varied views of the grassy slopes and the snow- 
capp'ed peaks beyond them. As we nearedthe 
summit of the Furka, I noticed the vegetation, 
with occasional flowers, growing within a few 
rods of vast snowdrifts. These snow-piles, 
like the glaciers, become so deep and solid that 
the short summer fails to melt them before an- 
other winter comes and holds them fast. The 
Furka Pass commands magnificent views of 
the great Alpine pinnacles, such as the Fin- 
steraarhorn, the Oberaarhorn, and the Mat- 
terhorn. We go down into the Rhone Valley 
])y a romantic, zigzag road, and approach what 
has been our main object in this Alpine tour, 
the wonderful Rhone Glacier. This consists 
of an immense pile of snow and ice between 
two mountains, extending six miles up the 
valley and having the appearance of a frozen 



SWITZERLAND AND THE ALPS, 205 

cataract. The devScription given in Longfel- 
low's ''Hyperion " is worthy of transcription : 
''At the base it is arched like a dome, and 
above jagged and rough, and resembles a mass 
of gigantic crystals, of a pale emerald tint, 
mingled with white. A snowy crust covers its 
surface ; but at every rent and crevice the 
pale-green ice shines clear in the sun. It is a 
gauntlet of ice, which centuries ago Winter, 
the King of these Mountains, threw down in 
defiance to the Sun; and, year by year, the 
Sun strives in vain to lift it from the ground 
on the point of his glittering spear." 

From the foot of this glacier issues the 
River Rhone, a considerable creek of dirty ice- 
water, rushing out from its crystal cave as if 
eager to escape from the cold, dark prison. 
When I had reached this point of my travels, 
and gazed my fill upon the famous glacier, my 
soul was troubled with an ambitious desire to 
do two things, both of which were, for me, im- 
practicable. One was to follow the Rhone 
down through all its windings to Chamouni 
and Mont Blanc, making a number of detours 
by the way ; the other was to follow the bridle- 
path over the Grimsel, by the Todtcnsee to the 
Grimsel Hospice, and so on down the Valley 



2o6 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

of the Aare to the Handegg Fall, Meiringen, 
Brienz, and Interlachen. This latter journey 
I found it most difl&cult to give up. But, alas ! 
I had made other plans before coming here, 
left my luggage at Fluelen, and must needs re- 
turn that way to Lucerne. But what I lost in 
those much-longed-for rambles I partly made 
up by another and more leisurely examination 
of the Furka Pass, Andermatt, and the wild 
and wonderful road between that place and the 
Lake of Lucerne. 

From Lucerne I went to Berne, and stopped 
long enough to look at its bears and fountains 
and cathedral, and the magnificent views from 
the cathedral terrace, and thence hastened on * 
to Freiburg. The picturesque scenery along 
the way, with all variet}^ of hill and valley, 
field and forest, bridges and tunnels, is but a 
repetition, in the main, of what we have else- 
where seen. The great suspension-bridge at 
Freiburg, nearly a thousand feet in length, is 
a wonder in itself, and commands impressive 
views of the deep ravine below. From Frei- 
burg I journeyed to Lausanne, and lingered 
there a day to revel in the beautiful views it 
commands of the Genevan Lake and the sur- 
rounding region. The great Gothic cathedral 



SWITZERLAND AND THE ALPS. 207 

stands on the height above the town, and con- 
tains numerous objects of interest. But to me 
the matter of greatest interest was that this 
old church, erected in the thirteenth century, 
was the place where, in 1536, Calvin, Farel,and 
Viret took part in the disputation which led to 
separation from the Church of Rome. Near 
this place also once stood the summer-house in 
which Gibbon completed his great *' History of 
the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." 

But next I turn to the deep-blue waters of 
the charming lake, and sail from lyausanne to 
Geneva. 

'' Lake Leman wooes me with its crystal face, 

The mirror where the stars and mountains view 
The stillness of their aspect in each trace 

Its clear depth yields of their fair height and 
hue." 

Our little steamer keeps near the northern 
shore, and touches at Rolle, and Nyon, and Cop- 
pet. At this last-named place we see the cha- 
teau of Neckar and his famous daughter, 
Madame de Stael. At length the goodly city of 
Geneva comes into view, and we step off at the 
Quai du Mont Blanc, and proceed to explore 
the points of interest in this metropolis of 
Switzerland. About the first thing I did was 



208 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

to walk over the little bridge to Rousseau's 
Island, look at the monument of that philoso- 
pher, and watch the rapid waters of the Rhone 
as they start off on their journey to the sea. 
To the ordinary tourist, Geneva has no great 
sights to interest, except its charming view^s of 
lake and hillside and distant mountain ranges. 
There are beautiful walks and drives along the 
lakeside and over the neighboring hills. In a 
clear atmosphere the huge dome of Mont Blanc 
is seen against the southern sky. We visit all 
the quays and the Jardin Anglais and the prom- 
enades and the boulevards and the Russian 
Chapel. I entered the cathedral and sat down 
in Calvin's chair, and visited his house, which 
is left in great neglect as compared with the 
care taken in Germany with places made fa- 
mous by the presence and i-esidence of Luther. 
Of greatest interest was the university and the 
public library, filled with its treasures of lit- 
erature and art. Here one may see the por- 
traits of all the leading princes and statesmen 
and reformers and scholars of the time of Cal- 
vin. Here are letters and manuscripts of rare 
value, and specimens of the earliest printed 
books. But — farewell, Switzerland! Let us 
awa}" to France. 



eJ 



Or^apfBr XII. 

PARIS. 

'^ MADE my journey from Geneva to Paris 
\G by a night express, and arrived in the 
^ ^ great city of the Seine about eight o'clock 
in the morning. As the railroad station where 
I left the train was in the southeastern section 
of the city, and my hotel near the Arch of 
Triumph at the farther end of the avenue of 
the Champs Elysees, my first ride of forty or 
fifty minutes took me directly through the 
most interesting portions of the great metrop- 
olis. By reason of previous study of the plan 
of Paris, I recognized the most notable places 
as we passed along. Almost the first view to 
the north, along the broad Rue de Lyons, took 
in the Place de Bastile — the site of the old 
prison of this name — on which now rises the 
lofty bronze Column of July, surmounted with 
a gilt globe and a colossal statue of Iyibert3^ 
Far to the left we caught glimpses of the 
domes of the Pantheon and the Church of the 
Invalides, glittering in the morning sun. Then 

14 209 



2IO RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

we noticed the river, and the Isle of the City, 
and the towers of Notre Dame. Then we 
passed the magnificent Hotel de Ville, and the 
Tower of St. Jacques; and a few moments later 
we were driving by the splendid Palace of the 
Louvre, and the ruins of the once more splen- 
did Tuileries, and then the garden of that 
fallen palace; and then the memorable Place 
de la Concorde, and from it a glimpse of the 
Church of the Madeleine; and then we entered 
the Champs Elysees, and approached the Arc 
de Triomphe with a feeling of supreme gratifi- 
cation that we had taken in so much, at this 
very first glance, of the most beautiful city of 
the world. 

Having established myself in a most com- 
modious and comfortable pension in the Ave- 
nue de Friedland, less than five minutes' walk 
from the Arch of Triumph, I soon sauntered 
forth to look upon that noble structure. It is 
said to be the largest triumphal arch in Eu- 
rope, and perhaps the most magnificent in the 
world. The central arch is ninety feet above 
the pavement, and the entire height of the 
stone-work is more than one hundred and fifty 
feet. The corner-stone was laid by Napoleon 
in 1806, but the monument was not completed 



PARIS. 211 

until 1836. It was designed to commemorate 
the victories of the French armies, and the 
groups of statuary which adorn the several 
sides consist of symbolical representations of 
War, Victory, Peace, and Fame. Many of the 
figures are portraits of the great men whom 
France delights to honor. We ascend by an 
interior winding stairway of two hundred and 
sixty-one steps, and reach the broad summit, 
which affords the finest view over the great 
city and the surrounding region. On the west 
lies the vast park known as the Bois de Bou- 
logne, consisting of more than two thousand 
acres. It contains several artificial lakes which, 
altogether, cover some seventy acres. Here, 
in the afternoon, may be seen the most splen- 
did equipages of the French capital; and the 
sight of horses, carriages, and riders is, with 
many, the most attractive thing in Paris. On 
the eastern side, the Champs Elysees stretches 
away to the central part of the city, and termi-' 
nates in the Place de la Concorde, and the 
Gardens of the Tuileries. Twelve avenues 
radiate from this triumphal arch, like so many 
rays diverging from a star, and hence the full 
French name, ly'arc de Triomphe de TEtoile. 
Through all these avenues the eye ranges at 



212 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

will over varied and beautiful aspects of the 
great city. 

No walk in Paris is more entertaining than 
that from the Arch of Triumph down through 
the Champs Elysees. The foot-pavements are 
laid in bitumen, and are about twelve feet wide. 
The entire way is adorned with trees and foun- 
tains, and arbors for rest, and an abundance of 
restaurants. Through this broad way most of 
the grand equipages drive en roitte to the Bois 
de Boulogne. In the evening time, avenue 
and side-streets and restaurants are brilliantly 
illuminated, and the gay pleasure-seekers 
throng the places in crowds, and often linger 
until the morning hours. 

At the point where the avenue opens into 
the Elysian Fields, or about half-way between 
the Arch of Triumph and the Place de la Con- 
corde, is the Round Point, a circular space 
adorned with fountains and flower-beds. From 
this place two broad avenues open to the 
River Seine. We go onward a few steps, 
and the great Palace of Industry presents to 
us, on the right, a front of seven hundred feet, 
and on the left stands the famous Eb'sian 
Palace of Napoleon. This latter was Napo- 
leon's favorite residence, and has been the 



PARIS. 213 

temporary abode of many of the most distin- 
guished personages of modern European his- 
tory. Further on we come to the Place de la 
Concorde, a beautiful but sad and memorable 
spot, associated with much that is most hor- 
rible in the records of crime and blood. It is 
a great square, seven hundred and fifty feet by 
five hundred, opening on the River Seine, and 
having the Garden of the Tuileries on one side 
and the Champs Elysees on the other. In the 
center rises an obelisk seventy-two feet high, 
brought hither from the Temple of I^uxor at 
Thebes. It occupies the spot where the guil- 
lotine did its bloody work during the terrible 
years of 1793 and 1794. Here, during that 
period, nearly three thousand persons were be- 
headed, among whom were the King lyouis 
XVI and the beautiful Marie Antoinette. But 
there is nothing now about the place adapted 
to remind one of the *' Reign of Terror." On 
each side of the obelisk is a beautiful fountain, 
sending up bright waters in the sunlight, and 
about the square stand eight colossal monu- 
ments in stone, representing the chief cities of 
France. 

From this square we ascend to the Garden 
of the Tuileries, which stretches away more 



214 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

than two thoUvSand feet towards the palace, and 
is bounded by terraces which greatly add to 
the general impression of artistic beauty. The 
w^hole space is like a wilderness of shrubs and 
flowers and trees and groups of statuary, and 
naturally invites a multitude of such as seek 
repose amid scenes of loveliness. Here the 
gayest society of Paris resort on summer even- 
ings; and during the daytime one may always 
see the halting invalid, the old man, and 
mothers and nurses with children, enjoying 
the luxury of pleasing sights and healthful air. 
On the southeast of this garden — facing it, 
and commanding the whole vision of terraces, 
fountains, monuments, and the Champs Elysees 
as far as the Arch of Triumph — once stood the 
splendid Palace of the Tuileries. The facade 
that faced the garden and the Champs Elysees 
was a thousand feet in length; but after the 
fall of Napoleon III, when Communistic fury 
was running wild in the capital, the lawless 
mob attempted to destroy the entire group of 
imperial structures, and succeeded in burning 
the Tuileries and the Library of the Louvre. 
No attempt has since been made to rebuild the 
royal palace. We picked our way over the 
blackened heaps, and entered what was the 



PARIS, 215 

inner court of the great palace, known as the 
Carrousel. Here we obtain a fine impression 
of the vastness of this pile of royal structures. 
Here is space sufficient for a large army to 
pass in review; and here, it is said. Napoleon 
received, previous to their departure on the 
disastrous Russian campaign, the magnificent 
array of troops that were destined to perish 
without victory. Here stands the triumphal 
arch which Napoleon erected some years be- 
fore his march into Russia, and on which he 
placed the bronze horses from St. Mark, in 
Venice. This arch is less imposing than the 
one at the head of the avenue of the Champs 
Elysees, and seems hardly in keeping with the 
colossal grandeur of surrounding objects. The 
bronze horses upon it are a more modern sub- 
stitute for those from Venice, which were re- 
stored after the fall of Napoleon. 

The north and south sides of the Place du 
Carrousel are walled by a continuous line of 
palaces, which were designed to connect the 
Tuileries with the lyouvre. The courts and 
palaces together must cover an area of not less 
than sixty acres. We pass eastward by the 
pyramidal monument of Gambetta, and through 
imposing pavilions, and enter the court of the 



2l6 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

Louvre. This world-renowned palace incloses 
an open space of nearly five hundred feet 
square, and presents from every point of view 
a most imposing spectacle. The passage-ways 
of entrance in the center of each of the four 
sides, the gates of bronze, the colonnade, the 
fagades, and sculptured ornamentation are all 
of surpassing beauty. But this Louvre is no 
longer a royal residence. It has served for 
many a year as a museum of antiquities and 
works of art, and is to-day the treasure-house 
of one of the most extensive and costly collec- 
tions in the world. 

We may as well enter now as any time, and 
take our glimpse at some of the marvels of 
art. As in other great museums of the kind, 
we find the objects of chief interest and value 
arranged in classes. Immense halls, and some- 
times a series of halls, are filled with collections 
from particular countries, or with monuments 
of some notable schools or periods of art. 
There are two vast rooms devoted to Assyrian 
monuments, and various antiquities brought 
from the ruined cities of Western Asia. In 
the adjoining Egyptian museum one may wan- 
der amid colossal bulls and sphinxes, and 
statues of gods and kings, and sarcophagi and 



PARIS. 217 

mummies, that take us back in thought three 
thousand years. And so we pass along through 
the magnificent rooms, and up the stairways, 
and into side chambers and galleries, until one's 
head swims amid the bewildering accumulations 
of antique marble, and sable bronze, and gleam- 
ing alabaster, and paintings of all the ages and 
all the great masters. 

But these wonderful galleries of art must 
be visited leisurely, and portions only at a time, 
if one would carry away with him any definite 
impression. Weeks and months are necessary 
for anything like satisfactory study of the 
treasures. One wants a whole week for the 
Eg3^ptian museum alone. As a mere sight- 
seer one needs an hour for the Venus de Milo, 
and another for the Borghese Gladiator, and 
more than an hour for Murillo's masterpiece, 
"The Immaculate Conception." How many 
hours and days, then, would suffice for the 
thousands of other sights almost as fascinating! 

Passing out of the eastern portal of the 
lyouvre we come into the broad and beautiful 
street of the same name, and see, directly op- 
posite, the gorgeous fagade of the Church of 
St. Germain. We remember that it was the 
bell of this church which, on the night of 



2l8 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

August 24, 1572, sounded forth the signal for 
the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. A few steps 
to the north stands the less notable Church of 
Ste. Marie, by which we walk into the grand 
Rue de Rivoli, and through it, eastward again, 
to the Tower of St. Jacques. From the sum- 
mit of this tower we obtain another memorable 
view, and the best possible panorama of the 
great buildings and streets in the central por- 
tion of the city. A little to the east of this 
tower, as we follow on the Rue de Rivoli, the 
magnificent fagade of the Hotel de Ville opens 
upon us, looking down upon the great square 
of the same name. On this broad place the 
bloodiest deeds of French history have been 
perpetrated, and public executions have enter- 
tained the vulgar crowd. From the southern 
side of this open square we cross, by a bridge, 
over the Seine to the "Isle of the City;" pass 
in front of the old and famous hospital knowm 
as the Hotel Dieu, and come to the grandest 
and most historic of all the churches — the cele- 
brated Cathedral of Notre Dame. It is said to 
occupy the site of what was once a pagan tem- 
ple. The foundation of the present edifice was 
laid in the latter part of the twelfth century; 
but it has been enlarged and changed from 



PARIS. 219 

time to time, and may be said to have been in 
course of building and restoration during seven 
hundred years. The great facade presents a 
world of grandeur and beauty to the eye, and 
the two lofty towers add much to the impress- 
iveness of the whole. We ascend the south- 
ern tower, and see the ''Bourdon Bell," which 
weighs thirty-two thousand pounds, and re- 
quires eight men to ring it. From the summit 
of either tower we obtain extensive views over 
the city. The interior of this ancient pile pre- 
sents a magnificence of arches and columns, 
and statuary and paintings, which are in keep- 
ing with its history and importance. The 
length of the church is nearly four hundred 
feet, and the height of the towers more than 
two hundred. 

If one is willing to look upon a sad and 
loathsome sight, let him go to the rear of this 
cathedral, at the eastern end of the island, and 
enter the Morgue, where the unknown dead of 
Paris are exposed for recognition and identifi- 
cation. The bodies are placed, as far as pos- 
sible, in a sitting posture, and in the clothes in 
which they are found; and, behind a glass par- 
tition and in a cool temperature, are usually 
retained three days. If not identified and 



2 20 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

claimed by that time, a photograph is taken, 
and they are buried at the public expense. A 
notable number of those here exposed to view 
are found in the river, and are probably sui- 
cides. Here I saw the body of a beautiful 
young woman, with her somewhat gaudy gar- 
ments *' clinging like cerements," while the 
wet wave of the dark-flowing river seemed 3^et 
to drip from her clothing. How natural to ask 
in such a place. the questions of Hood's mem- 
orable poem : 

"Where was her home? 
Who was her father ? 

Who was her mother ? 
Had she a sister? 

Had she a brother? 
Or was there a dearer one 
Still, and a nearer one 

Yet than all other?" 

Other objects of interest on this ancient 
island are the Palace of Justice, and the adjoin- 
ing Sainte Chapelle, a Gothic edifice of exquisite 
beauty, and with immense windows of stained 
glass. Here, too, is the famous Conciergerie, 
where Marie Antoinette, Danton, and Robes- 
pierre were imprisoned previous to their exe- 
cution. Near by are also the Tribunal of 
Commerce, and the Prefecture of Police, and 



• PARIS. 221 

in the large square between this latter and the 
cathedral is a fine equestrian statue of Charle- 
magne. The several bridges which connect 
this island with the northern and southern 
banks of the Seine are also worthy of partic- 
ular admiration. 

Proceeding now across the bridge that leads 
into the Rue St. Jacques, we soon come to that 
most interesting collection of antiquities, art, 
and industry, the Cluny Museum. Here are 
more than ten thousand articles, such as elab- 
orate carvings in wood; sculptures in stone, 
marble, alabaster ; china-ware ; ivory- work ; 
tapestries; shoes, slippers, stockings; and ve- 
hicles of divers sorts. The various articles fill 
many halls and galleries. Immediately adjoin- 
ing are the ruins of the old Roman palace, 
said to have been founded by Chlorus near the 
end of the third century. Here a considerable 
number of Roman antiquities are preserved, 
and the student of the earliest history of Paris 
will find much of absorbing interest. Ju^t to 
the south of the museum we come to the 
buildings of the College of France, and the 
celebrated Sorbonne, so famous in the medi- 
eval and later history of Paris. A few steps 
to the southeast of these buildings we find the 



222 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

Pantheon, once and again a church, but now a 
''Temple of Fame," the tomb of Victor Hugo, 
and formerly of Marat and Voltaire and Mira- 
beau and Rousseau. The magnificent dome is 
one of the most conspicuous objects in the en- 
tire city. Hard by this place is the ancient 
Church of St. Etienne du Mont, built in the 
time of Clovis, and famous for its tombs of 
Racine and Pascal and Rollin. 

It is but a short walk from the Pantheon 
to the Jardin des Plantes, the most complete 
and famous museum of natural history in the 
world. Here is, to begin with, a delightful 
pleasure-ground, where one may stroll for hours 
and days amid sights of beauty. Here are 
green-houses, adapted to the preservation and 
cultivation of plants from all climates. Here 
are almost numberless museums, or ''galleries," 
of botany and zoology and mineralogy and 
anatomy and anthropology. Here is a men- 
agerie of all sorts of animals; and there are 
public halls and laboratories, where lectures 
are given on ever}" branch of science connected 
with natural history. 

Returning westward again, and passing by 
the Pantheon, we soon come to the Palace of 
the Luxembourg. It has served for a prison 



PARIS, 223 

and a senate-house as well as a palace. The 
garden, which opens before it to the south, is 
one of almost ideal beauty, and is adorned with 
trees and walks and fountains, and monuments 
of statuary by distinguished artists. While in 
this vicinity we should visit the Church of St. 
Sulpice, and behold its countless decorations 
and its famous organ. 

While on this southern side of the city we 
may as well pay our visit to the Hotel des In- 
valides. This is a magnificent home for the 
aged and dependent soldiers of the nation, 
where they are cared for at the public expense. 
It consists of a vast pile of buildings, with in- 
terior courts, while the numerous projections 
and angles and pavilions present an exterior 
of most impressive architectural effect. It 
contains a museum of artillery, an extensive 
library, and other objects of note; but prob- 
ably more interesting than- any of these, to 
most travelers, are the ample dining-room and 
kitchen, and the arrangements for cooking 
many hundreds of pounds of meat at a time. 
The adjoining Church of St. lyouis is notable 
for being the depository of a multitude of ban- 
ners captured by the French from other na- 
tions; but the circular edifice, known as the 



224 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

Dome, is distinguished above all other parts of 
this vast pile of buildings for containing the 
tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte. Here the mor- 
tal remains of the great commander repose in 
a massive sarcophagus of polished porphyry. 
The sarcophagus rests on a pedestal of green 
granite, and occupies a circular crypt, which is 
open at the top and surrounded by a balus- 
trade. Directly above it, one hundred and 
sixty feet aloft, rises the wonderful dome, which 
is one of the most conspicuous objects in the 
city. From this dome and the painted win- 
dows there pours down, over tomb and pave- 
ment and all surrounding monuments, a flood 
of golden light, which never fails to produce 
upon the visitor an impression of peculiar 
ravishment. We look over the balustrade, and 
on the pavement of the crypt behold inscribed 
the names of Napoleon's famous battle-fields, 
while all about stand colossal statues, symbol- 
izing his principal victories, and marble bas- 
reliefs representing the beneficent fruits of his 
rule. Here, too, in an adjoining recess, are a 
statue of the emperor as he appeared in his 
imperial robes, a golden crown, the insignia he 
wore on state occasions, and the sword of Aus- 
terlitz. A winding stairway leads down to the 



PARIS. 225 

entrance of the crypt, and over the door is 
written in French this quotation from Napo- 
leon's will: ''I desire that my ashes may re- 
pose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst 
of the French people whom I have so much 
loved." At the sides and in the transepts of 
this splendid Pantheon are chapels containing 
the tombs of Jerome and Joseph Bonaparte. 
The two monumental chapels, opposite each 
other, of Turenne and Vauban, distinguished 
military heroes of a previous age, are not only 
admirable in themselves, but add much to the 
general effect of this wonderful interior. 

Passing out from this most remarkable of 
tombs, and going a few steps to the west, 
through the Avenue de Tourville, we come to 
the vast Champ de Mars, where Napoleon cel- 
ebrated a great festival just before proceeding to 
the fatal field of Waterloo. Here many a similar 
concourse has assembled to celebrate victories 
or to witness grand parades, and on these am- 
ple grounds several ''Universal Expositions" 
have been held. On the southeastern end of 
the square is the Military School, an immense 
building covering an area of twenty-six acres; 
and at the opposite end, across the river, are 
the magnificent grounds and Palace du Troc- 

15 



226 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

adero. The highly ornamented bridge which 
crosses the Seine at this point, and connects 
these splendid open places, is called the Pont 
d'Jena, in honor of the victory of Napoleon 
and the French army at the battle of Jena, in 
1806. 

From the Champ de Mars we follow the 
broad Avenue de la Motte Piquet to the Espla- 
nade des Invalides, and proceed northward, 
through its shaded walks, to another portion 
of the Seine, across which we behold the in- 
viting places of the Champs Elys^es. We 
turn down the Quai d'Orsay, pass by the ma- 
jestic public buildings of the Minister of For- 
eign Affairs and the Chamber of Deputies, 
cross the Bridge de la Concorde and the Place 
of the same name, and proceed directly on- 
ward, through the Rue Royale, to the Church 
of the Madeleine, the most magnificent of the 
modern churches of Paris. Its exterior is in 
the style of a Grecian temple, like the Parthe- 
non, with columns running round an elevated 
platform. The bronze doors are said to be, 
next to St. Peter's at Rome, the largest in the 
world. The decorations of the interior are 
elaborate and gorgeous beyond description. 
Three cupolas let in the light from above, and 



PARIS. 227 

rest on graceful arches supported by beautiful 
Corinthian columns. At the high altar is a 
group of statuary representing the Magdalen 
carried up to heaven on the wings of angels. 
The choir and chapels and ceiling are most 
richly ornamented with carvings and gildings 
and statues and frCvScoes. 

A very delightful and impressive walk is 
that from the Madeleine, through the Boule- 
vards of the Madeleine and the Capuchins, by 
the Grand Hotel, and around the whole cir- 
cuit of the Grand Opera-house. This last 
named makes a most magnificent architectural 
display, and exhibits on every side a multi- 
tude of sculptures, representing Poetry, Ora- 
tory, Music, and the like. The interior is cel- 
ebrated for its grand stairway and sumptuous 
halls, which are claimed to surpass anything 
of the kind in the world. Passing down the 
broad space in front of the theater, and pro- 
ceeding southwesterly along the Rue de la Paix, 
we soon come to the Place Vendome, and look 
upon the famous column, built in imitation of 
Trajan's Pillar at Rome, and designed to com- 
memorate the victories of Napoleon. We con- 
tinue our walk through this beautiful square, 
and turn to the left, down the Rue St. Honore, 



228 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

to the Church of St. Roche, celebrated for its 
paintings, and also for the fact that on its steps, 
in 1795, Napoleon stationed his cannon and 
dispersed the Royalist Convention. Farther 
on we come to the broad places in front of the 
Palais Royal, and turn northward again to ad- 
mire the buildings and grounds of this historic 
structure. It was built and first occupied by 
Cardinal Richelieu, but it has since passed 
through many hands and many fortunes. It 
has been the residence of many royal persons; 
has been confiscated to the nation, and then 
again restored to roya],^ hands, only to suffer 
desecration again by revolutionary mobs. The 
garden of the palace is now a place of pop" 
ular resort, and the most elegant shops in Paris 
are located along the arcades which extend 
around the beautiful inclosure. In the even- 
ing the garden is brilliantly illuminated, the 
fountain and lime-trees add to the attractive- 
ness, and hundreds of idlers and pleasure- 
seekers are seen reveling in festivity and mirth. 
Just to the north of this garden is the Na- 
tional Library, the largest in the world. It 
numbers its volumes b}^ the million, and its 
treasures of manuscripts, curiosities, and works 
of art make it one of the most interesting 



PARIS, 229 

places of the city to the antiquary and the 
student of history. Near the library is the 
Bourse, where the merchants and brokers as- 
semble daily for their work, and stir up as 
much noise, confusion, and excitement as can 
be witnessed in any other "Board of Trade/' 
The building is surrounded by a Corinthian 
colonnade, and at the corners are four statues, 
symbolizing Commerce, Industry, Agriculture, 
and Navigation. A short walk from the Bourse 
brings us to the Halles Centrales, a vast mar- 
ket which, when completed, will cover an area 
of over twenty acres. On the north side of 
this market is the Church of St. Eustache, 
where the funeral of Mirabeau occurred in 
1 79 1, the *' Feast of Reason" was celebrated in 
1793, and the ''Theophilanthropists" made 
their Temple of Agriculture in 1795. 

From this point we may follow the Rue de 
Turbigo, in a northeasterly direction, to the 
great industrial museum known as the Con- 
servatoire des Arts et Metiers. This was once 
a Benedictine Abbey, but now contains prob- 
ably the largest collection of mechanical in- 
struments in Europe. Farther on in this di- 
rection is the splendid square which was once 
called the Place du Chateau d'Eau, but now 



230 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

the Place de la Republique. While in this 
part of the city, one may as well visit that 
most interesting of all the cemeteries of Paris, 
the Pere la Chaise. It occupies a considerable 
hill, and is laid out in avenues and winding 
walks, and ornamented with trees and foun- 
tains and monuments, some twenty thousand 
in number. Many of the monuments are ad- 
mirable specimens of sculpture, and many 
mark the last resting-place of men and women 
who have been famous in the history and lit- 
erature of France. One of the most interest- 
ing tombs is that of Abelard and Heloise, con- 
structed out of fragments of the Convent of 
the Paraclete, which Abelard founded in the 
twelfth century. Here, too, we may visit the 
graves of such masters of music as Herold 
and Bellini and Chopin; also of such men as 
ChampoUion the Egyptologist, Laplace the 
mathematician, Beaumarchais the dramatist, 
Cartellier the sculptor, Beranger the poet, and 
vScores of others equally famous. The soldiers' 
monuments and the private vaults and chapels 
will compare with those of any of the great 
cemeteries of the world. 

In returning from the cemetery we may 
drive through the Rue de la Roquette, and look 



PARIS. 231 

on the prison of that name, in which con- 
demned criminals await the execution of their 
sentence, and where the guillotine is yet used 
in the execution of capital punishment. We 
follow the same street down to the Place de la 
Bastile, where once stood the prison of hor- 
rible celebrity. On its site now rises the beau- 
tiful Colonne de Juillet, one hundred and fifty- 
four feet high. From this point we follow the 
broad Boulevard Beaumarchais a short distance 
northward, pass through a side street to the 
left, and admire the beautiful Place des Vosges, 
with its fountains and equestrian statue of 
lyouis XIII, and continuing on through winding 
ways in this northwesterly direction, we reach 
the group of palatial buildings which contain 
the national archives. Into the various halls 
of this most interesting collection of documents 
the traveler should not fail to enter. Here is 
shown a model in stone of the Old Bastile. 
Here you may see the papers of the trial of 
Joan of Arc, and a portrait of the Maid as she 
appeared at the time. Here is to be seen, in 
a glass case, the famous Edict of Nantes, signed 
by Henry IV in 1598, and the Revocation of 
the same by Louis XIV in 1685. Numerous 
curious and interesting documents relating to 



232 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

the French Revolution also attract the atten- 
tion of the visitor. In the immediate vicinity 
of the archives is the Imprimerie Nationale, 
an immense printing-establishment, which em- 
ploys about a thousand persons, and manufac- 
tures the type and paper used, as well as exe- 
cutes the printing and binding of books. All 
official documents of the Government are 
printed here. 

We have lingered so long among the charm- 
ing sights of Paris — and yet have taken only a 
partial and hurried glance — that we can no 
more than refer briefly to the delightful excur- 
sions which no traveler should fail to make to 
some half-dozen places within easy reach from 
the great capital. One of the shortest and 
most readily made is to the Chateau and Park 
of Vincennes, on the east of the city. This 
was once a royal residence, and not a few per- 
vSons of princely rank were born and died here. 
It was also used as a State prison, and such 
persons as Henry IV of Navarre, the Prince of 
Conde, and Count Mirabeau were confined 
within its walls. In the moat of this old cas- 
tle the Duke d'Enghien was shot, in 1804, by 
order of Napoleon. The park adjoining is 



PARIS, 233 

known as the Bois de Vincennes, and is noted 
for its numerous delightful walks and drives- 
But far more interesting and extensive are the 
Palace and Forest of Fontainebleau, some 
thirty-seven miles southeast of Paris, and easily 
reached in less than two hours by rail. The 
immense palatial buildings with their sumptu- 
ous decoration, the gardens, and the vast forest 
of over forty-two thousand acres, are as mag- 
nificent in themselves as they are famous in 
their historical associations. It was in this 
palace that the Kmpress Josephine was di- 
vorced in 1809; and in one of the courts, after 
his abdication in 18 14, Napoleon parted from 
his Old Guard; and here, too, on his return 
from Elba, he reviewed the troops before 
marching into Paris. 

A short trip of about five miles directly 
north of the city brings us to the celebrated 
Cathedral of St. Denis. This should be vis- 
ited by all who are interested in the ecclesi- 
astical history of France, as well as by those 
who would look upon the burial-place of the 
older kings, from Dagobert, A. D. 638, to 
Louis XV, 1774. In this old church Henry 
IV, in 1593, renounced Protestantism ; and here, 
in 1 8 10, Napoleon was married to the Arch- 



234 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

duchess Marie Louise. Another trip to the 
northwest of the city may embrace a vivSit to the 
chateau of Malmaison and St. Germain-en-Laye. 
The latter is thirteen miles distant, and was 
for a long time a summer residence of the 
kings of France. It is now celebrated for its 
museum of national antiquities, its splendid ter- 
race, which commands a charming view over 
the valley of the Seine and the adjoining 
forest, which is traversed by a great number 
and variety of shady walks. Malmaison lies 
about half way between this forest and the 
capital, and is memorable as the place where 
the Empress Josephine resided after her di- 
vorce from Napoleon, and where she died in 
1 814. Her tomb, and that of Queen Hortense, 
her daughter, may be seen in the neighboring 
church at Rueil. 

But of all the places of note in the environs 
of Paris, the most celebrated and the most fre- 
quently visited is Versailles, about fifteen miles 
to the southwest. The most pleasant method 
of visiting this place is by private conveyance, 
and taking St. Cloud and Sevres on the way. 
The last named is famous as being one of the 
most notable porcelain manufactories in the 
world, and if one is specially interested in ex- 



PARIS. 235 

amining the details of the works he will need 
a whole day for that alone. The ruins of the 
Palace of St. Cloud may be sufficiently seen in 
a few minutes, and a drive of an hour through 
the park will show its most admirable views. 
The Palace and Park of Versailles are full of 
objects of extraordinary interest. Whole floors 
and galleries, with almost innumerable halls and 
rooms, are filled with a collection of historical 
pictures and portraits and statues, which can 
hardly be surpassed by anything of its kind 
elsewhere. The Grand Gallery, in which King 
William of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor 
of Germany on January 18, 1871, is two hun- 
dred and forty feet long, thirty-five feet wide, 
and forty-two high, and commands, through 
seventeen great arched windows, the entire view 
of the palace gardens. Opposite the windows, 
in gilded niches, are seventeen mirrors, which 
reflect the beauties without and within, and 
the ceiling is ornamented with paintings of 
remarkable impressiveness. 

One needs whole days for any profitable 
study of such an immense collection. It al- 
most stupefies, not to say stultifies, an ordinary 
mortal to be rushed through such a universe 
of splendid sights. One should put on his best 



236 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

good nature, and take his momentary glance, 
and pass on after his guide, and '* thank God 
that it is as well with him as it is." But one 
could almost wish to linger forever in the gar. 
dens behind the palace. The terraces, the 
fountains, the lakes, the groups of statuary, 
and the monuments afford a thousand and one 
sights of bewildering beauty. The Grand Tri- 
anon and the Petit Trianon, two handsome 
villas at one side of the great park, are lovely 
paradises. Near one of these we were shown 
a large collection of state carriages, exhibit- 
ing the different styles of vehicles used by the 
royal families during many generations. One 
gilded coach, constructed and used solely for 
the occasion of the baptism of the Prince Im- 
perial, is said to have cost $40,000. The Petit 
Trianon is redolent with the memory of the 
unfortunate Marie Antoinette, and the whole 
inclosure, with buildings, grounds, and costly 
decoration, is a monument of the extravagance 
and prodigal display of the French monarchy. 
Who can fail to see that such outlay of reve- 
nue, wrung from downtrodden millions, many 
of whom can scarcely find means to buy their 
daily bread, must sooner or later breed discon- 



PARIS. 237 

tent, murmurings, rebellion, revolution, com- 
munism, anarchy? 

Beautiful France ! Fickle nation ! Land 
of the vine and of broad forests ! Many have 
been thy woes. The curse of Romish super- 
stition and bigotry, with its Revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes, and its Te Detnn over the 
Massacre of Bartholomew, is still upon thee ; 
and infidelity and revolution and anarch}^ are 
the natural retribution. When the marriage 
relation is better honored, when a pure home 
is loved more than the theater and the wine- 
saloon, when true religion is seen to consist in 
love to God and man rather than in sacra- 
mental rites and traditions, then, and not till 
then, may lya Belle France attain her most glori- 
ous possibilities, and become a veritable garden 
of the lyord. 




orrjapte XIII. 

UP AND DOWN THE RHINE. 

'Y first tour of the Rhine began at Co- 
,, logne, and I must not leave that city of 

Cd <^U^ many attractions without recording 
my impressions of its greatest monument, the 
most magnificent Gothic cathedral in the 
world. The first sight of it filled me with awe. 
Its towers, more than five hundred feet high, 
seemed to enter the very heavens, and the im- 
mense mass of ornamented marble rose like a 
vast mountain from the river-side. The main 
doorway is ninety-three feet high and thirty- 
one feet wide. I entered, and glanced along 
the nave and through the aisles, and felt at once 
a seUvSe of vavStness; but when I had walked 
around one of the columns, and found that 
it alone occupied a space almost as large as 
some of our smaller chapels, I began to realize 
the magnitude of this colossal church, and the 
vast interior grew upon me like a vision of an- 
other world. I shall make no attempt to de- 
scribe the details of this wonderful building. 
238 



UP AND DOWN THE RHINE. 239 

Its foundations were laid in the year 1248, and 
its top-stone in 1880. The total cost has been 
estimated at $10,000,000. 

As the Rhine presents few attractions be- 
tween Cologne and Bonn, I went by rail to the 
latter city, and stopped there for a day to visit 
the university. The town itself is beautiful for 
situation, and a favorite residence of foreigners. 
The views of the river and the neighboring 
hills, and the shaded promenades are a never- 
failing attraction. Most of the university 
buildings were formerly the Palace of the 
Electors. They contain the library'of a quarter 
of a million volumes, numerous museums of 
art and antiquities, and the lecture-rooms. I 
entered one of these rooms, and found Professor 
Kamphausen lecturing to a class of eight or 
nine students on the Book of Genesis. At an- 
other hour I found my way to Professor Christ- 
lieb's lecture-room, and heard him for an hour on 
what he thought should constitute the subject- 
matter of evangelical preaching. Twice over 
he went rapidly through the Old and New 
Testaments, mentioning the chief persons and 
events, and suggesting in how many ways 
these might be used as topics of pulpit dis- 
course. 



240 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

As we proceed by boat from Bonn, one of 
the first objects to arrest attention is the tower 
of the ruined Castle of Godesberg. Near by it 
are the ruins of a still older structure. Here we 
begin to note that which gives special interest to 
this famous river ; namely, the gray old monu- 
ments of the medieval time, and the legends 
and romance connected with them. Opposite 
this ruin, and further up the river, towers aloft 
"the castled crag of Drachenfels,^' nine hun- 
dred feet above the river. The boat glides 
along its base, and we look up its steep and 
frowning front, covered with low brushwood 
and vineyards, and see the opening of the 
Dragon's Cave, where Siegfried is said to have 
slain the monster, and bathed his body in the 
blood, which made him invulnerable. One 
wishes here to disembark, and make the tour of 
the seven mountains of which the Drachenfels 
is one; but we are only to see the Rhine by 
boat, and so move on against the rapidly-flow- 
ing stream, and next notice on the western 
shore one of the most romantic ruins of the 
Rhine, the Arch of Roland. I have alread}^ 
spoken of the Roland vStatues found in many 
European cities ; here we have a fragment of 
a castle said to have been built b}^ the famous 



UP AND DOWN THE RHINE. 24 1 

knight. The legend connected with it seems 
to be a mixture of old traditions of the time of 
Charlemagne and those of the Crusades. As 
the common story goes, Roland was smitten 
with a passionate love for the beautiful Hilde- 
gunde, daughter of the Lord of the Drachenfels 
Castle, and that love was as passionately re- 
ciprocated. But Roland was summoned away 
to battle, wounded almost unto death, and the 
report came back to Hildegunde that her lover 
had been slain. The world had no more 
charms for her, and she at once entered the 
Convent of Nonnenwerth, on an island in the 
Rhine, a few miles south of the Drachenfels. 
But Roland recovered, and returned to seek the 
object of his love, and found that she had se- 
cluded herself forever from the world. There- 
upon he built a castle on a high rock, over- 
looking the island, and there spent the rest of 
his days watching the convent groundvS, and 
happy when, at times, he fancied he saw the 
fair form of his beloved Hildegunde going to 
the chapel at the hours of prayer. But one 
day he heard the tolling of the convent bell, 
and saw a funeral procession on the island ; 
after which he saw the beloved form no more. 

He pined away with a broken heart, and was 

16 



2Z12 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

found dead with his face turned in it3 last look 
towards the little chapel where he had so often 
seen her. All that now appears of the castle 
is this crumbling arch, standing apart in soli- 
tude as a monument of blighted love. 

As we proceed southward, and scenes of 
beauty open on every side, we need to keep our 
eyes continually turning up and down the river, 
and sweeping the banks and hills on either 
shore. At a graceful bend of the river we pass 
the village of Unkel, and observe the Apollinaris- 
kirche, with fine fagade and four towers, crown- 
ing a hill on the western bank, and are re- 
minded of one of the most notable ecclesias- 
tical legends of this river. Here, they say, 
came the vessel bearing the head of St. Apol- 
linaris, Bishop of Ravenna, on its way to Co- 
logne ; but when the boat reached a point op- 
posite the vsite of this church, it stopped in the 
middle of the stream, and, like a thing of life, 
resisted every effort to move it down the cur- 
rent until the holy head w^as taken on shore, 
and deposited on the mountain where the 
church now stands ! 

And now we pass the basaltic cliffs of Erpel, 
and see ivy-clad ruins beyond ; we come to 
the mouth of the Ahr, and the high walls of 



UP AND DOWN THE RHINE. 243 

Sinzig heave in sight, and its handsome parish 
church, and the glimpse up the valley of the 
Ahr as far as the castled height of Lands- 
kron. Next we notice on the east the Castle of 
Arenfels, and chateaus, and towers and ruined 
piles become too numerous to mention in de- 
tail. At Rheineck, as at several other places, 
a fine new cavStle has taken the place of an 
old ruin ; but usually some relics of the more 
ancient structure are retained, as if to pre- 
serve from oblivion the memories of the past. 
The ruined Castle of Hammerstein, and the 
high watch-tower of Andernach attract ex- 
ceptional attention; then we come to Neuweid, 
near which, on opposite sides of the Rhine, the 
Nette and the Wied empty their waters from 
the heights beyond. Another old watch-tower 
looks down upon us from the west as we pass 
on from Neuweid, and at Engers some frag- 
ments of a bridge are thought to mark the 
spot where Caesar once crossed the Rhine. 

At Coblenz I disembarked, not willing to 
pass the lofty Ehrenbreitstein and the Moselle 
Valley without a more leisurely inspection. A 
short walk northward from the landing-place 
brings us to the old Church of St. Castor, 
founded in the ninth century, which is worthy 



244 E AMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

of a visit because of its rich interior and his- 
toric monuments. We pass the fountain on 
the west, and proceed to the bridge over the 
Moselle, which rests on fourteen arches, and 
commands a fine view of all the surrounding 
heights. Returning, we follow the walks along 
the waters, and find the whole length of the 
promenade, from the Moselle to the great rail- 
way bridge over the Rhine, a most charming 
tour on foot. 

But I was bent on witnessing a sunset from 
the Fortress of Ehrenbreitstein. So, as even- 
ing drew on, I crossed the Bridge of Boats, and, 
missing the office at which cards of admission 
are obtained, I found the winding road which 
leads up the mountain, and walked on alone, 
admiring the varied outlooks and the well-con- 
structed highway to the fortress. At length I 
came to a guard of some five or six soldiers, 
who demanded my pass, and declared that it 
was not permissible for me to proceed farther 
without such a billet as could be obtained for 
half a mark at the foot of the hill. Vainly I 
pleaded that I had looked but failed to find the 
office where tickets were sold. Vainly I told 
them that I was an " Amerikaner," and would 
gladly pay them more than half a mark to be 



UP AND DOWN TtiE kHiNE. 245 

allowed to pass on. ''Nein, nein," was the 
firm reply. But I urged that the sun would 
go down before I could return and procure a 
ticket, and then one main object of my ascent 
at that hour of the day would be lost. But all 
my pleading failed to produce effect, and I at 
length turned away in a great paroxysm of in- 
dignation and wrath, and walked rapidly down 
the road. I had not gone a hundred yards 
when I heard footsteps following me, and, look- 
ing around, I saw one of the soldiers, without 
his gun, hastening towards me, and beckoning 
me to halt. He came up, and, putting a small 
card in my hand, signed for me to return up 
the hill; but himself walked on down the 
mountain. I pondered a moment, and, return, 
ing to the guard, found them in mute and sol- 
emn position, more stately apparently than be- 
fore, as if nothing had occurred. I approached 
and showed my billet, which one of them took- 
turned it over several times as if suspicious 
that it might be wrong, and then, with a pecul- 
iar twinkle of the eye, handed it back, and mo- 
tioned me to pass on. And on I went, and 
came to the entrance of the fortress, where an- 
other guard met me, and asked for my billet. 
I gravely produced my card, and said that I 



246 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

had come more than three thousand miles — 
even from Chicago, in far-off America — to see 
the sunset from Ehrenbreitstein. He received 
the ticket, and called a guide to conduct me 
about the fortress, and to show me all that I de- 
sired to see. We walked together to the verge 
of the precipitous rock, w^hence he pointed out 
and named the principal objects of interest. 
The scene was glorious beyond description. 
The Rhine flowed far below, and wx could 
trace its windings away to the south and to the 
north. The valley of the Moselle opened di- 
rectly in front, and far off towards the setting 
sun I admired the enchanting landscape, with 
its vine-clad hills, its wooded side-valleys, its 
picturesque ruins, and quiet villages. And 
then I thought of m}- home in a far land be- 
yond that beautiful landscape, and asked my 
soldier- guide about his home; but he had ''none 
to speak of." His home was in the barracks, 
and wherever orders called him. We watched 
the setting sun together. The whole horizon 
was lit up with a fiery glow, and the sun grew 
redder and redder as he sank behind the dis- 
tant hills. After the sunset the western sky 
took on an infinite variety of hues, and as the 
shadows gathered over hill and valley and 



UP AND DOWN THE RHINE. 247 

river, the twilight was so protracted as not to 
seem like the coming on of night. I returned 
leisurely down the mountain, rewarded my ac- 
commodating soldier-friends mit Danken nicht 
ohne Geld, recrossed the Bridge of Boats, and 
found myself comfortably at my hotel before 
the long twilight had fully deepened into the 
darkness of night. 

When I awoke next morning the sun w^as 
beaming brightly on river and hillside. Again 
I walked out to view the charming scenery, 
and strolled down the Rhine Promenade, along 
the palace grounds, beneath the fine arches of 
the railway bridge, and on to the Island -of 
Oberwerth. There is something to interest 
the observer at every step. I lingered about 
these grounds until ten o'clock, and then re- 
sumed my journey by steamer up the river. 

Between Coblenz and Bingen we see the 
choicest portions of the Rhine. Castles and 
fine chateaus and old ruins look down upon us 
at every turn, and the swift-flowing river lends 
a charm to all. The Castle of Stolzenfels, re- 
stored and beautified in the earlier part of this 
century, is a striking object on the landscape. 
It rises nearly opposite the point where the 
lyahn empties its waters down from the eastern 



248 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

hills, and commands a splendid view of the 
hills and valleys about it. Nearly opposite is 
the beautiful Castle of Lahneck, and a few 
miles south, rising over the city of Braubach, 
stands the grand old Castle of Marksburg. Be- 
yond this point the river takes a sudden turn, 
and fetches a circuit resembling an inverted 
letter g, at the farther end of which, passing 
Boppard on the right, we sail directly south- 
ward, and see, on the rocky cliffs above Born- 
hofen, the twin Castles of Sterrenberg and 
lyiebenstein, with which a legend is connected, 
more tender and romantic than that of the 
Roland Arch on the lower Rhine. We have 
noted that the name of Roland's affianced bride 
was Hildegunde, and the name of the heroine 
of lyiebenstein Castle is Hildegarde, so closely 
resembling it as to beget the suspicion that 
the two stories are varying forms of one and 
the same old legend. Hildegarde was the 
foster-child of the Lord of lyiebenstein, and 
the two sons of this lord fell into a like pas- 
sion of love for her, and each wished to make 
her his bride. But Henry, the younger, in 
great love for his brother, and with a delicate 
appreciation of the situation, took himself out 
of the way, and went on a Crusade to the Holy 



UP AIS/D DOWN THE RHINE. 249 

lyand. The elder brother was thus left free to 
wed the fair maiden; and, in happy anticipa- 
tion of their marriage, and that he might have 
them always near him, the father builded on 
the neighboring height the CavStle of Sterren- 
berg for their future home. But the old knight 
died before the consummation of the marriage, 
and the nuptials were postponed for a time. 
During this period there came glowing reports 
of the heroism of the absent Henry; and his 
brother, growing restless at home, lost his af- 
fection for Hildegarde, and started off on a 
Crusade. Thus the maiden of Liebenstein 
was left alone in the great castle, and spent 
many weary days of watching and waiting for 
the return of her lover. When, at length, he 
did come back, he brought with him a Grecian 
bride; and the injured and heart-broken Hilde- 
garde withdrew from all public gaze, and con- 
cealed herself in a lonely chamber of the castle. 
After awhile the noble Henry returned, and 
discovered the outraged love of his foster- 
sister. He challenged his perfidious brother 
to single combat; but as they were about to 
rush into the deadly contest, Hildegarde rushed 
between them, and adjured them to desist from 
the miserable duel, and become reconciled. 



250 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

She prevailed, and then hastened away to the 
convent at the foot of the castled rocks, and 
there secluded herself for the rest of her life 
from the gaze of the world. As if it were a 
retribution for his infidelit}^ to Hildegarde, the 
Grecian bride proved faithless to her husband, 
and forsook him. Then, in humiliation and 
self-reproach, he cast himself upon his brother's 
S3^mpath3^, besought his pardon and friendship, 
and secured a permanent reconciliation. But 
the light and joy of their lives had gone out, 
and they continued to live in gloomy retire- 
ment at the old Castle of Liebenstein, while 
the new one of Sterrenberg was left to fall 
into the ruin which it appears to-day. 

We passed along through many a beautiful 
curve of the river, amid many scenes that still 
live in memory as visions of a lovely dream. 
We remember the magnificent ruins of the 
Castle of Rheinfels, which lie nearly four hun- 
dred feet above the river at the handsome village 
of St. Goar. Just beyond we come to the lit- 
tle whirlpools playing over rocks which appear 
to be sunken in the middle of the stream, and 
on the left are the frowning rocks of Lurlei, 
four hundred and thirt}' feet high, beneath 



UP AND DOWN THE RHINE. 25 1 

which, according to an old tradition, the treavS- 
ure of the Nibelungen lies concealed. 

The next point of notable interest, as we 
proceed southward, is the ancient town of 
Oberwesel with its old Gothic churches and 
the extensive ruins of the Castle of Schonburg. 
A little further south, on the opposite bank, 
we see the medieval walls of Caub, and the 
fine Castle of Gutenfels standing on guard 
above them. And so, as we pass onward, we 
observe castle after castle, tower after tower, 
ruin upon ruin. The Stahleck, and the Fiir- 
stenberg, and the Nollingen, and the Falken- 
burg, and the Rheinstein, have each a legend 
and a history, and the numerous side valleys 
that open to the east and the west appear 
charmingly romantic, and invite the pedestrian 
tourist to ideal realms. At length our little 
steamer passes through the rapid waters of the 
Bingerloch, and close along the little island 
of the " Mouse Tower," where the river takes 
a notable turn and is entered on the south by 
the waters of the Nahe. Opposite the mouth of 
the Nahe our attention is called to a rock that 
is mostly hidden by the water, but rises a few 
feet above the vSurface, and is marked with a 



252 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

black cross. In this rock we are told the his- 
torian Voigt desired that his heart might be 
buried. His wish was granted, and the heart 
deposited in this urn of natural quartz, is sup- 
posed to retain its old sympathy with the 
beautiful river he had loved so w^ell. 

And now we touch at Bingen, "fair Bingen 
on the Rhine," and its ''vine-clad hills" and 
'' yellow sunlight " seem to welcome us to stop 
awhile. But we defer that joy, and pass on, 
looking at the wooded heights of the Nie- 
derwald, and the magnificent National Monu- 
ment, which has been erected in honor of the 
restoration of the German Empire. We see 
the beautful Castle of Johannisberg in the dis- 
tance, and sail on among delightful islands, and 
in sight of wildernesses of vineyard, until, as the 
sun is sinking behind the western hilltops, we 
disembark at the old historic city of Mayence. 

Mayence, German Mainz, like Cologne, is 
the city of a great cathedral. The vast struc- 
ture was begun in the tenth century; but having 
been repeatedly destroyed by fire, it has grown 
through the centuries, and received its finish- 
ing touches in our own day. In length it is 
even greater than the Cologne Cathedral, and 
far richer in monuments. One wanders about 



UP AND DOWN THE RHINE. 253 

its aisles and transept and choirs and clois- 
ters, until he feels like a lost child in a vast 
wilderness. The tombs date from the thirteenth 
century onwards, and the mural paintings are 
rich and impressive. Passing out of the great 
brazen doors which bear inscriptions of the 
year 1135, we pass through the market-place 
into a broad square which is adorned with 
a fine statue of Gutenberg. It is one of 
the glories of Mayence that Gutenburg, the 
inventor of printing, was born there. The 
house in which his mother lived, and that of 
his first printing-office, are still pointed out. A 
Latin inscription on his monument declares 
that *'an art which was hidden from the Greeks 
and the Latins, was hammered out by the clever 
genius of a German; and now, whatever the 
ancients or the moderns know, they know not 
for themselves, but for all people." 

A short walk from this statue brings us to 
the site of the old Roman Camp, now known 
as the Citadel. Here we find a most interest- 
ing monument, a gray old mass of stone, said 
to have been erected by the Roman legions in 
honor of Nero Claudius Drusus, the illustrious 
conqueror of numerous German tribes, who 
here ended his brilliant career in 9 B. C. by 



254 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

an accidental fall from his horse. The elect- 
oral palace, on the opposite side of the city, 
is now converted into a museum of antiquities 
and works of art. Its collection of Roman an- 
tiquities is said to be the most extensive in 
Germany. Among them the most conspicuous 
are ancient Roman altars and tombstones and 
various implements of war. In one room may 
be seen the figure of a Roman legionary in 
full uniform. 

Ma3^ence was my point of departure for visit- 
ing Frankfort, Darmstadt, Worms, Speyer, Hei- 
delberg, Carlsruhe, Strasburg, and Stuttgart. 
Of several of these cities I have already writ- 
ten, and of the others I will not stop to speak 
in detail. In Frankfort-on-the-Main I had a 
special interest, as an American Methodist, in 
visiting our Martin Mission Institute, a theo- 
logical school for the training of preachers for 
the ministry of the German Methodist Church. 
Here I found my good friend Achard and 
family, and felt peculiarly at home. He served 
me as a most efficient guide in looking through 
the principal sights of the city. Of all these, 
which are many and beautiful, that piece of 
art which lives in memory most freshly after 



UP AND DOWN THE RHINE. 255 

years have passed, is Dannecker's marble 
group, known as '' Ariadne on the Panther." 
The Stadel Institute of Art is, like many other 
similar collections which I have had occasion 
to mention, a wilderness of beauty. Of course 
I visited the house in which Goethe was born, 
and saw his splendid monument in the Goethe- 
Platz, walked about the Romerberg, and ex- 
plored the historic halls of the Romer. 

I should make at least a passing mention of 
Speyer, or Spires ; for its ancient and imposing 
cathedral takes us back near to the tenth cen- 
tury, is magnificent in its dimensions, and con- 
tains the tombs of many a ro3^al personage. 
Here lie the remains of that Henry IV whom 
Pope Gregory VII excommunicated. Here, 
also, are the graves of Henry V, and Philip of 
Swabia, and Rudolph of Hapsburg, and Bea- 
trice, the wife of Barbarossa. Here Adolph of 
Nassau and Albert I of Austria, the bitter ri- 
vals, sleep together in the same vault. 

*' Ab ! how they slumber side by side, 
Like brother warriors true and tried, 

Those stern and haughty foes ! 
Their stormy hearts are still ; the tongue, 
On which enraptured thousands hung, 

Is hushed in long repose." 



256 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

I should mention the magnificent Cathedral 
of Strasburg, which is also of great antiquity. 
Its spire is four hundred and sixy-five feet 
high, and its architecture without and within 
commands highest admiration. But probably 
the famous astronomical clock in the south 
transept attracts jnore visitors than all the 
architectural glories of the massive pile. A 
skeleton strikes the hours, and at noon each day 
a figure of Christ appears in a lofty niche, and 
from a side door the twelve apostles march out 
and pass before him. Peter with his key 
comes last, and just as he appears a cock, 
perched on a side tower, flaps his wings and 
crows. And these are only a few of the man)'' 
wonderful qualities of this remarkable piece of 
human mechanism. 

But I must leave these cities of the Upper 
Rhine, and turn my face once more towards 
the north. I journeyed one Saturday from 
Carlsruhe up to Mayence, and thence by rail 
to Bingen, with the purpose of spending one 
quiet Sunday close by *'the pleasant river," 
where I could hear its blue waters sweep along, 
and where I could rove at will over the vine- 
clad hills. I found excellent accommodation 



UP AND DOWN THE RHINE. 257 

in the Hotel Victoria, and from my window 
could command a fine view of the river, and its 
broad valley, the landscape of the Niederwald, 
and the hills back of Riidesheim. Some may 
think it a strange taste that would prefer a rest 
at Bingen rather than at Wiesbaden, only a few 
miles distant. But I was not a patient nor an 
invalid, nor in search of mineral waters, either 
for drinking or for bathing. I chose rather to 
see the smoothly-gliding waters of the lovely 
Rhine, and repose awhile amid the sights of 
beauty which open to the tired traveler at the 
confluence of that river and the Nahe. During 
the day I wandered about the town, crossed 
over the bridges of the Nahe, strolled about the 
footpaths of the Castle of Klopp, and wandered 
all over the Rochusberg. I sat down and med- 
itated in many an arbor, and feasted my eyes 
on the bewitching views from the Rochus- 
capelle and the Scharlachkoph. When night 
came on I had obtained that perfection of 
physical and mental rest which is known only 
to a skilled pedestrian who can travel all day, 
and yet rest quietly, and linger at beautiful out- 
looks, and drink in the exhilarating tonic of a 
glorious day and a bracing atmosphere. I re- 

17 



258 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

tired that night to sleep mOvSt sweetly, dream- 
ing only of restful sights, and anticipating a 
happy to-morrow. 

My journey down the Rhine was given up 
to constant gazing. The steamer, floating with 
the rapid current, moves over the same dis- 
tance in half the time required to ply the other 
way. We dispense with all guide-books now, 
and simply gaze and admire. Having identi- 
fied the principal sights in the former journey, 
we readily recognize them now, and look upon 
them from different points of view. One 
should aim to see this river twice at least by a 
boat-journey. Then he can well afford to study 
his guide-book thoroughly on the first trip, and 
learn the name and history of the most nota- 
ble places and castles. But if he can make 
but a single tour, it is better to let maps and 
guide-books go, and simply look and appre- 
ciate the ever-changing landscapes. It is far 
more satisfactory in the end to have given all 
one's thoughts to those visions of beauty than 
to have lOvSt many a fine view by trying to 
learn the name of a town or castle which may 
be forgotten the next hour. Now castle after 
castle comes into sight; little towns suddenly 
burst into view, and then are hidden ; here the 



UP AND DOWN THE RHINE. 259 

river makes a sudden turn, and then opens 
into what seems a lake with no outlet ; then 
we round a castled crag, 

'* And hills all rich with blossomed trees. 
And fields which promise corn and wine," 

and a long stretch of waters, greet the eye, and 
we glide onward, half intoxicated with the 
superabundance of bewildering beauty. We 
sweep along the base of precipitous cliffs which 
frown above us. Again we meet the watch- 
tower Pfalz, that rises on its ledge of rock out 
of the river as if to block our way ; again the 
heights of Ehrenbreitstein look down upon us; 
again we pass the Arch of Roland, and the 
Drachenfels, and beautiful Bonn ; and at length, 
more than gratified, and filled with memories 
of charming scenes, we land once more at Co- 
logne, and worship in its great cathedral. 




ar^aptBt XIV. 

IN THE NORTHLAND. 

WEAVING journeyed up and down the 
^P Rhine, and gazed my fill upon its 
castled heights, and hillsides green with 
mingled forest, field, and vine, I felt a strong 
desire to see some portions of '' the Land of the 
Midnight Sun." I was quite content to omit 
the North Cape, if I might only see some 
choice portions of Southern Scandinavia. I 
stopped and rested a Sabbath day at the great 
commercial city of Hamburg, on the Elbe. The 
great harbor, or rather the multiplicity of har- 
bors, are filled with vessels from almost every 
country of the civilized world. Here is the 
immense Sandthor-Hafen, and close by it the 
Grasbrook-Hafen. And there are the Baaken- 
Hafen, and the Oberhafen, and the Brookthor- 
Hafen, and the Binnen-Hafen. But more attract- 
ive than these to the average visitor are the two 
great sheets of water known as the Binnen-Al- 
ster and the Aussen-Alster. One can take his 
stand on the Lombard Bridge, which separates 
260 



IN THE NORTHLAND, 26 1 

these lakes, or anywhere along the neighbor- 
ing ramparts, and behold little steamers and 
rowing-boats without number plying to and fro. 
The banks are formed into beautiful prome- 
nades, and adorned with shade-trees, and over- 
looking them all are numerous palatial dwell- 
ings and some of the finest hotels of Germany. 
As in Bremen, the old fortifications extending 
round what was the former city have been 
laid out into public promenades, and afford 
delightful walks for young and old. Espe- 
cially fine is the outlook over the Nieder-Hafen 
from the Elbhohe, whence one can see for 
miles around the busy life and traffic, the masts 
and flags of hundreds of vessels going up and 
down the Elbe, or lying in the harbors. The 
Botanical and Zoological Gardens on the north- 
west of the city compare favorably with any 
in Europe ; and several of the churches, most 
of which are modern structures, will attract 
the attention of such as have not grown weary 
of looking at the usual ornaments and monu- 
ments of cathedrals. The educational inter- 
ests of Hamburg are represented in the Johan- 
neum, near the center of the city. Here are 
the gymnasium, and the college, and the library 
of some three hundred thousand volumes, and 



262 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

the Museums of Natural History and of Ham- 
burg Antiquities. A little to the west of these 
is the Exchange Building, where brokers and 
merchants meet by thousands every day, and 
form as noisy a crowd as can be found in any 
similar place on earth. Next to London, 
Hamburg is said to have the largest money- 
exchange transactions in Europe. 

A short journey brought me from Ham- 
burg to the old medieval town of Liibeck. 
Passing from the railway station to the market- 
place, we noticed first the Holsteinthor, a fine 
old gateway of the fifteenth century. The 
city stands on a rising ground, and shows a 
number of interesting remains of former times; 
such as old walls and ramparts and tow^ers, 
and gates like the one mentioned above. It 
is rich in educational institutions of a popular 
character, and the churches of St. Mary, St. 
Catharine, St. Peter, and the cathedral afford 
peculiar attractions to students of medieval 
architecture. The first named is regarded as 
one of the finest specimens of a Gothic church 
in Northern Europe. The central nave is one 
hundred and twenty feet long, and, with the 
side aisles and the great transepts, presents a 
most imposing interior. The spires are over 



IN THE NORTHLAND. 263 

four hundred feet in height. The Gothic 
Rathhaus in the market-place is equally re- 
markable, both for its exterior and interior 
vStyle and ornaments, its huge gables and 
lofty spires. The promenades outside the 
Burgthor afford many pleasing walks and 
views, and lead to the spot where the Prussian 
army, under Bllicher, fought so bravely to 
maintain their honor after the disastrous bat- 
tle of Jena, but were forced at last to sur- 
render. 

A night voyage of some fourteen hours 
took me from lyiibeck to Copenhagen, over 
an angry portion of the Baltic Sea. Early 
in the morning I got successfully through the 
custom-house (this was the thirteenth at which 
I had been required to pass examination since 
landing in Europe), secured the service of a 
competent guide, and proceeded to explore 
the various objects of interest in the beautiful 
Danish capital. Here one interested in the 
study of Northern antiquities would find a col- 
lection unsurpassed anywhere else. The fine 
buildings, old palaces, busy streets, inviting 
parks, and extensive shipping would also fur- 
nish so many different worlds of delight to 
persons of different tastes. I confess that al- 



264 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

most my sole object in visiting Copenhagen 
was to look upon Thorwaldsen's greatest pro- 
duction, his sculptured '' Christ and the Apos- 
tles." These are kept, not in the " Thorwald- 
sian Museum," which contains only copies of 
the originals, together with various other fine 
works of art, and the great sculptor's grave, but 
in the '* Church of our Lady." The figure of 
Christ stands under a massive canopy back 
of the high altar, and those of the apostles are 
arranged in two rows, facing one another, six 
on each side of the nave of the church. The 
face of the Savior wears an indescribable ex- 
pression of tenderness and afi'ection, his head is 
turned slightly downward, and his hands are 
spread out as if to bid some one welcome to 
himself. Just in front of him, in the center of 
the altar space, kneels a beautiful angel, hold- 
ing up a baptismal font in the form of a large 
ocean shell. First, on the left, stands Peter, 
with the keys in his right hand, and his left 
hand holding up the skirts of his flowing robe. 
Next comes John, with heavenly countenance, 
a book and pen in hand, and an eagle at his 
feet. At his side is James, his brother, with a 
staff in his right hand, his left hand covered 
with a mantle, and a broad-brimmed hat hang- 



IN THE NORTHLAND, 265 

ing on the back of his left shoulder. Next 
comes Andrew, the brother of Peter, with a 
cross in the shape of the letter X at his right 
side, and a roll in his left hand. At his side 
stands Judas Thaddeus, with his hands placed 
together as in prayer, and a battle-ax under 
his left arm and leaning against his left 
shoulder. Simon the Zealot is next, standing 
in easy repose, with hands crossed and resting 
on a saw. On the oppOvSite side of the nave, 
and facing Simon the Zealot, is Bartholomew, 
with a knife in his right hand, and holding up 
his robe in his left. Thomas is at his side, a 
carpenter's square in his left hand, and his 
right placed under the chin, with the index 
finger resting on his nose, as if in doubt. Next 
to him comes James Alphseus, with his head 
slightly turned, and looking over his left 
shoulder, while the hands are crossed in front, 
and resting on a staff. Philip holds a cross in 
his right hand, and the skirt of his robe in his 
left, and Matthew has a money-bag between 
his feet, as if late from the receipt of customs, 
or perhaps still there ; his right foot rests upon 
a stone, and he holds a tablet and pencil in his 
hands, as if in the act of writing. Judas Iscar- 
iot is not represented, but instead of him, as the 



266 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

twelfth, Paul stands nearest to the right hand of 
Christ, with his own right hand and finger up- 
lifted and his left resting upon a sword. But 
perhaps even more impressive than the attitudes 
and attendant symbols are the expressions 
wrought upon the faces of these mute apostles. 
Here, in fact, are twelve gospels of Christ 
speaking from these silent monuments of mar- 
ble, and each representing a distinct experience 
and embodiment of the kingdom of God in the 
human soul. 

But I linger so long by these immortal 
works of genius that I have no great space to 
write about the wonders of the '' Land of the 
Midnight Sun," to which I journeyed after leav- 
ing Denmark. Twelve or more hours of toss- 
ing on the waves of the Cattegat brought me to 
the handsome and prosperous commercial city 
of Gothenburg, on the western coast of Sweden. 
My chief desire in this region was to visit the 
celebrated Falls of Trollhata, about fifty miles 
north of Gothenburg. These falls are said to 
be unsurpassed by anything of the kind in 
Europe, but I have to confess to a measure of 
disappointment at beholding them. They con- 
sist of a series of five or six cataracts, none of 
which are precipitous, and the highest of which 



IN THE NORTHLAND. 267 

has a descent of less than fifty feet, and they 
are distributed over a distance of nearly two 
miles, and so broken into sections by rocks and 
islands and sawmills as to be without any sur- 
passing or sublime impressiveness. The quan- 
tity of water passing over them is perhaps 
two-thirds as great as that of the Horseshoe 
Fall at Niagara, but it is so divided and sent 
through different channels as to have none of 
the grandeur and sublimity of the great Ameri- 
can cataract. So I will leave these waters and 
hasten away to Stockholm, some three hun- 
dred miles to the northeast, by far the most 
beautiful and interesting spot I saw in Sweden. 
It is sufficiently near the midnight sun for 
sober and well-behaved mortals to go; for 
where one can read by daylight at ten o'clock 
in the evening and two in the morning, he 
ought to be content to sleep the intervening 
hours. So thought I, but nevertheless was 
somewhat at a loss to know when to go to bed 
and when to get up. 

The attractions of the Swedish capital are 
sufficiently numerous and varied to gratify 
tourists of all manner of tastes. Is one inter- 
ested in agriculture? Here is the Agricultural 
Museum, with its adjoining School of Median- 



268 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

ics, and library, and collection of models. Is 
he fond of natural science? Here is the Geo- 
logical Museum, and the Fishery Museum, and 
the Museum of Natural History. Here, too, 
is an Artillery Museum, and a Medical Museum, 
and almost any number of public and private 
collections of art and industry. The North- 
ern Museum occupies several buildings, and 
is stored with Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish 
antiquities. Here one may see specimens of 
the weapons and tools, the chairs and beds and 
dresses, the pots and kettles and pans, the shoes 
and cradles, and canoes and coflins, of the an- 
cient Norsemen. The National Museum oc- 
cupies a magnificent building, and has its world 
of treasures arranged in departments. Its col- 
lection of Swedish antiquities fills six rooms. 
Its ceramic collection fills two rooms with 
nearly five thousand specimens of pottery and 
porcelain from many a land. The collection 
of sculptures fills nine rooms, and that of or- 
namental furniture five rooms. The picture- 
gallery occupies a whole floor of the immense 
building, and is rich in the works of ancient, 
medieval, and modern masters. 

In order to pay a visit to the Royal Palace 
we cross the bridge of seven handsome arches 



JN THE NORTHLAND, 269 

to what is known as the Staden, the oldest part 
of the city. Here we have the opportunity of 
surveying the busy trafhc of the numerous 
rivers and harbors and quays. The palace 
occupies a rocky height of the island, and con- 
tains the usual series of magnificent apartments 
common to the houses of European kings. 
Here we are guided through all manner of 
highly-decorated saloons and audience-cham- 
bers and banquet halls ; we observe splendid 
staircases and rich cabinets and frescoed gal- 
leries, adorned with portraits of the great men 
of Sweden and masterpieces of Scandinavian 
artists. The old market-place near the palace 
has been the scene of many bloody executions. 
The Knights' House contains the armorial bear- 
ings of all the nobles of Sweden, and the por- 
traits of her most distinguished marshals. The 
Council Chamber of the City Hall is notable for 
its size and the historical antiquities it contains. 
A bridge near by it leads us to another island, 
on which rises the old church which serves 
now only as the burial-place of Swedish royalty. 
Here, in a huge sarcophagus of green marble, 
repose the remains of Gustavus Adolphus, who 
fell in the battle of Liitzen. Here I observed, 
also, the marble coffins of Charles XH, and 



270 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

Frederick I, and Queen Eleonora. In the midst 
of these and many other royal tombs, one re- 
calls the lines of Gray: 

" The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
Await alike the inevitable hour; 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 

No Spot in all my journeys afforded so many 
delightful excursions, both by land and water, 
as Stockholm. Scores and vScores of little 
steam-yachts are pl3dng in every direction. 
In two or three hours, at almost any part of 
the day or evening, one can sail ten or fifteen 
miles out among the innumerable islands of 
the Baltic and return ; or he may go in the 
opposite direction as far as he likes among 
the picturesque wooded and rocky islands and 
coasts of Lake Malaren. 

One of the most memorable of my day ex- 
cursions was a visit to Upsala, some forty 
miles to the northwest of Stockholm. Here 
is a famous Gothic cathedral, containing the 
highly-embellished vault of Gustavus Vasa, 
and also the tombs of many of Sweden's illus- 
trious dead. Here is the ancient university, 
founded in 1477, and now having over fifty 
professors and eighteen hundred students. I 



IN THE NORTHLAND, 27 1 

was shown into the library, and permitted to 
examine the celebrated Codex Argenteus, a 
manuscript of Ulfilas' Gothic translation of the 
Bible, made in the fourth century of our era. 
Its one hundred and eighty-seven leaves of 
reddish parchment are written with gold and 
silver letters, and the whole is massively bound 
in solid silver covers. 

Upsala was the capital of the ancient kings 
of Sweden, and here the old paganism longest 
resisted the progress of Christianity. An 
hour's walk brings one to ''Old Upsala," where 
a large church is said to occupy the site of the 
heathen temple, and three huge mounds, over 
two hundred feet in diameter and nearly sixty 
high, are supposed to cover the ashes of an- 
cient kings. 

At Upsala the setting sun is in the north. 
The twilight falls gently on mounds and 
castle, and field and hill. I must hasten away 
to my native clime. Farewell, land of Eddas 
and Sagas ! My heart turns longingly to its 
sunset home beyond the western ocean. 



ar^aplBr XV. 

IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

gTTT^N my homeward way from Stockholm I 
" Syiy/ revisited Copenhagen, and strolled about 
'^ again through the attractive portions of 
the Danish city. Again I lingered and medi- 
tated among the apostles of Thorwaldsen's 
creation, and sought to learn from them some 
deeper lessons of the apostles of our Lord. 
Again I visited Liibeck and Hamburg, and ex- 
amined more carefully than before their va- 
rious sights and scenes. For the third time I 
visited Bremen, and spent some days in ram- 
bling again among scenes made familiar by 
previous observations. But before crossing 
over to Britain, I planned to see the chief cities 
of Holland and Belgium, and after a short jour- 
ney I found myself within the border of those 

historic lands. 

Utrecht. 

My first halting-place was Utrecht, prettily 

situated at the junction of two branches of the 
272 



IN THE NETHERLANDS, 273 

Rhine. I found little in the city itself to 
deepen the impression of the stirring facts of 
her history. The cathedral, museum, picture- 
gallery, and court-house contain nothing of 
special interest to one who has become almost 
weary of looking at the multiplied treasures of 
this kind to be found in all the great cities of 
Europe. More interesting to me was the uni- 
versity, two hundred and fifty years old, with 
its thirty-six professors and five hundred stu- 
dents, and library of one hundred and twenty 
thousand volumes. 

What attracted my attention more than any 
of these things was the Dutch people them- 
selves, their habits, characteristics, and enter- 
prise. They seem to be busy as bees, diligent 
as ants, laborious as slaves, tireless as the 
waters of the great sea which roll and dash 
above them. Their cleanliness is proverbial. 
A genuine Dutch housekeeper goes through 
the process of house-cleaning once a week, and 
the washing and scrubbing and rubbing are 
applied to the outside of the building as thor- 
oughly as within. Many of the private houses 
are painted and ornamented in grotesque style, 
and bear signs at which most Americans would 

laugh. Thus, one bears the inscription, '* My 

18 



274 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

Pleasure and Repose;" another, ''Void of 
Care;" another, ''My Blessed Peace." 

Probably the first thing to attract a foreign- 
er's attention are the huge windmills, with 
sail-boards fifty and sixty feet long. These 
chiefly serve to pump the superabundant water 
out of the low grounds into canals, which carry 
it out into the sea ; but they are also employed 
to saw lumber, grind grain, and drive various 
kinds of machinery. About as numerous as 
the windmills are the canals, which seem to 
run about in every direction, both in the coun- 
try and in the cities. These, however, are 
seen to be a natural feature of a country which 
is in most parts many feet below the level of 
the sea. Dutch enterprise and heroism are no- 
where more conspicuous than in the fact that 
they have dared the ocean tides, and wrested a 
whole country from the legitimate dominion of 
the sea. Immense dikes have been constructed 
along the coast and the river-courses, and serve 
as huge mud-walls to stay the influx of the 
waters. One can stand near the sea, on the 
inside of one of these high barriers, and hear 
the threatening breakers dash and thunder on 
the opposite side, ten or fifteen feet above his 
head, 



in the netherlands. 275 

Amsterdam. 

A railroad ride of about one hour took me 
from Utrecht to Amsterdam, the great com- 
mercial metropolis of Holland. This great 
city, like Venice, is built on piles deeply driven 
through yielding mud and sand into a more 
solid soil beneath, and is intersected in every 
direction with almost countless canals. The 
magnificent harbor, the immense docks, com- 
passed about with vessels great and small from 
all parts of the world; the busy market-places, 
the thronged streets, and the numerous fine 
buildings, are all replete with interest to the 
stranger from afar. The Botanic and Zoolog- 
ical Gardens are equal to anything of the kind 
in Europe, and the Ryks Museum is worthy 
of comparison with the great collections of art 
and industry in London, Paris, Berlin, Dresden, 
or Rome. Here one sees collections of old ar- 
mor, and trophies of some of the great battles 
'' whereof all Europe rang from side to side.*' 
The so-called ''ecclesiastical department" il- 
lustrates the development of church archi- 
tecture for a thousand years. Other rooms 
illustrate a similar development of secular ar- 
chitecture. The department of engravings con- 



276 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

tains one hundred and fifty thousand plates, 
and hundreds of albums of complete series of 
the works of the great masters. The gallery 
of paintings occupies more than thirty rooms, 
and has among its numerous treasures Rem- 
brandt's most celebrated work, ''The Night 
Watch," which fills a ground of fourteen by 
eleven feet. 

HaarIvKm, Lkydkn, Rotterdam. 

Haarlem is only half an hour by rail from 
Amsterdam, and half a day is sufficient time to 
visit the great market, with its town hall and 
museum ; and great church, with the organ 
claiming to be the most powerful in the world; 
and the park, with its grand old beeches and 
delightful walks. The organ has five thousand 
pipes, some of w^hich are thirty-two feet long 
and fifteen inches in diameter. 

To me one of the most interesting of the 
old Dutch towns was Leyden, some seventeen 
miles from Haarlem. Not for its famous old 
State-house, nor its museums of antiquities and 
natural history, and other sights of which 
much might be written, was this city an object 
of desire to me, but for its world-renowned 
university, where such masters as Scaliger, Des- 



IN THE NETHERLANDS, 277 

cartes, Grotius, and Arminius taught. Even 
the old burg, with its ancient Roman wall dat- 
ing from the early Christian centuries, seemed 
less impressive than a house near the univer- 
sity, which bore an inscription stating that on 
that spot John Robinson, the first leader of the 
Pilgrim Fathers, had lived, taught, and died. 
The library of this school contains over three 
hundred thousand volumes and nearly six 
thousand manuscripts. The walls of its " Sen- 
ate Hall" are covered with life-size portraits of 
the generations of distinguished professors 
whose names are as household words among 
the scholars of the world. 

I will not take space to write about The 
Hague, and Scheveningen, and Rotterdam, 
more than to say that these are, in the main, a 
repetition of what one finds in the other large 
cities of Holland. Scheveningen is the great 
Dutch watering-place adjoining The Hague, 
and famous for its fishing and sea-bathing. 
But it can not bear comparison with the 
beauty, comfort, and variety of interest which 
one finds at such places as Coney Island, Long 
Branch, and Ocean Grove. 

Rotterdam rivals Amsterdam, and nearly 
everything that interests the traveler in the 



278 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

one city has its counterpart in the other. 
Its docks, dikes, harbors, shady walks, rich 
museums, world-wide commerce, and popula- 
tion of two hundred thousand, make it one of 
the notable cities of Europe. Here I was 
shown the house where Erasmus was born, and 
his fine monument in the great market-place. 
As the shadows of evening gathered over the 
busy, bustling town, I went out to the suburb 
of Delfthaven, where the Pilgrims embarked, 
in 1620, to find beyond the ocean a place of 
freedom to worship God. Here the same John 
Robinson, mentioned above, kneeled down on 
the shore, and invoked God's blessing on the 
devoted band. And that ship's company was 
not the only good thing that came of old from 
Holland to America. From these lowlands 
came the settlers of New York, and of the 
banks of the Hudson and New Jersey. And 
the lessons of industry and perseverance and 
fidelity to noble principles, which the people of 
Holland have taught the world, are many and 
undying. All honor to the little country of 
great heroes. American students of history 
can not afford to be ignorant of the land w^hich 
has produced such hOvSts of statesmen and 
jurists and warriors and painters and scholars 



IN THE NETHERLANDS, 279 

in all departments of science and philosophy. 
Long live these cities of the plain, and may 
they never be submerged by the great deep, 
whose proud waves they have stayed ! 

Antwerp. 

The two chief cities of Belgium, which the 
foreigner desires above all others to see, are 
Antwerp and Brussels. The student of art 
comes to Antwerp thinking of it as the city of 
Rubens; the student of history associates it with 
the stirring events of medieval and modern 
wars; the man of business knows it as one of 
the notable seaports of Europe; and the great 
fairs which are held here attract thousands of 
merchants from all parts of the world. Here, 
too, is Belgium's great arsenal, and the mili- 
tary defenses of the city are such as to ena- 
ble it to maintain a long resistance to any be- 
sieging army that might attempt its reduction. 

But, like many other European cities, the 
glory of Antwerp is its great cathedral, five hun- 
dred feet in length, and about half as wide as it 
is long. Its elegant tower is the admiration of 
all beholders, and affords from its second gal- 
lery a most magnificent view over all the sur- 
rounding country. It contains a chime of a 



28o RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

hundred bells, the largest of which weighs 
eight tons, while the smallest might be lifted 
and rung by a child. We enter, and look 
through its grand, imposing aisles, its vast 
nave, and broad transepts, and feel the same 
sense of awe and sublimity as in the Cologne 
Cathedral and St. Peter's Church at Rome. 
The dozen or more chapels are adorned with 
splendid monuments of sculpture and paint- 
ing, and the transepts contain the two great 
masterpieces of Rubens, the "Descent from 
the Cross," and the ''Elevation of the Cross." 
Before these productions of genius I saw 
groups of visitors lingering with a sort of 
worshipful gaze; and that sight of the lifeless 
body of Christ, held by Joseph and Nicodemus, 
the head hanging so helplessly on the shoul- 
der, is something that can not be easily for- 
gotten. 

The Sunday I spent in Antwerp was 
a day of Kermesse, and the streets were full of 
processions. In the afternoon of that day I 
witnessed a procession of the Virgin through 
the nave and aisles of the cathedral. A figure 
of the Virgin, richly adorned, was carried on 
the shoulders of priests, while, others in sacer- 
dotal dress, marched before and behind, carry- 



IN THE NETHERLANDS. 281 

ing censers of smoking incense and chanting 
various prayers and hymns. 

Far richer in its monuments and decora- 
tions than the cathedral is the Church of St. 
Jacques, a kind of Westminster Abbey for the 
noblest families of Antwerp. Here is the gorge- 
ous chapel and tomb of Rubens ; here are altar- 
pieces, and stained-glass windows, and chapels 
filled with an excessive display of costly orna- 
mentation. The Church of St. Paul is also 
worthy of a visit, if only to study the artificial 
'' Mount Calvary," and " Holy Sepulcher," 
adorned with statues of patriarchs and proph- 
ets and various saints and angels. The Jes- 
uits' Church contains many beautiful monu- 
ments of art, and the house of Rubens, the 
Hotel de Ville, the Bourse, or Exchange, and 
especially the Museum, with its numerous sa- 
loons and hundreds of paintings, are all full of 
interest. The old house of the Printer Plantin, 
and his son-in-law Moretus, known now as the 
" Musee Plantin-Moretus," contains a curious 
store of antique furniture, oak-paneling, tap- 
estries, paintings, and the old printing-rooms 
and offices jUvSt as they were left by the former 
owners. The public parks and gardens, the 
wharfs and docks and immense w^arehouses. 



282 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

are places well worthy of repeated examina- 
tion, but we must pass them by. 

BRUSSEI.S AND WaTKRI.00. 

More notable in many ways than Antwerp 
is the royal city of Brussels, the capital of Bel- 
gium. All the world has heard of Brussels 
carpets and Brussels lace. The place also has 
distinction for the manufacture of various other 
fabrics, and articles of gold, silver, brass and 
iron. Here many of the best mathematical and 
surgical instruments are made, and Brussels 
clocks and lamps are a specialty. 

The tourist who would see most of this in- 
teresting city in the shortest time should first 
walk or ride the whole length of the great 
boulevards, which run in a sort of belt-line 
around the inner city, and within view of many 
of the principal sights. These boulevards oc- 
cupy the site of the old ramparts, which were 
leveled down to this present form and purpose 
about the beginning of the present century. 
One of the first buildings to attract attention 
is the splendid Palace of Justice, built some- 
what after the fashion of the old Assyrian pal- 
aces. It rises from a base of nearly six hun- 
dred feet square, and each successive story 



IN THE NETHERLANDS. 283 

diminishes in size. The upper section is sur- 
rounded with beautiful columns, and supports 
a rotunda embellished with symbolic figures of 
Justice, I^aw, Power, and Clemency, above which 
is a dome surmounted by a gilded cross. The 
inner courts and apartments are in keeping 
with the magnificent exterior. This immense 
structure looks down the Rue de la Regence, 
which leads northeasterly to the great park. 
As we thus approach the park we pass through 
the Place Royale, and note the Church of St- 
James on the right, and the fine equestrian 
statue of Godfrey de Bouillon in front of it. 
This statue is said to occupy the spot where 
Godfrey exhorted the Flemish people to enter 
upon his great Crusade. The park is a most 
attractive place, adorned with fountains and 
sculptures, and surrounded by imposing pal- 
aces and public buildings. A few steps to the 
northwest rises the cathedral, which may be 
said to have been more than six hundred years 
in building. Its rich interior, beautiful stained- 
glass windows, elaborately-carved pulpit, and 
numerous paintings and sculptures, make it 
more a museum of art than a place of worship. 
A few steps to the southwest of the park is 
the Royal lyibrary, with its hundreds of thou- 



2^4 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

sands of volumes and rare treasures in manu- 
scripts, engravings, and coins. The great pic- 
ture-gallery adjoining is one of the richest of 
its kind in Europe. In the same building are 
the Natural History collection and the Mu- 
seum of Sculpture. 

But the spot of greatest historical interest 
in Brussels is the Grande Place, near the cen- 
ter of the city, a fine old square, upon which 
rises the famous Hotel de Ville. In this open 
market-place many a lordly head has fallen by 
the ax of the executioner. Here, in the spring 
of 1568, twenty-five Netherland nobles were 
executed by order of the cruel Duke of Alva. 
The somewhat irregular building known as 
the Hotel de Ville contains a series of sumptu- 
ous apartments, decorated wath portraits and 
mural paintings and tapestries and curious 
carvnngs. The tower rises to a height of 
three hundred and seventy feet, and commands 
an extensive view of the entire city and the 
country round about. By means of a good 
glass the battle-field of Waterloo can be clearly 
seen in the distance. 

I will not stop to mention other notable 
buildings, or attempt to describe the splendid 
walks and drives around the cit3% nor even the 



IN THE NETHERLANDS. 285 

Manikin Fountain, and his divers suits of 
clothes. I will only add a brief account of 
my visit to the famous battle-field. Leaving 
my hotel early one morning, I went by rail 
to the station Braine I'Allend, which is a little 
more than a mile from the place of the battle. 
I there employed a guide, and with him trav- 
ersed on foot all the principal parts of the bat- 
tle-field. We began at the Chateau of Hougo- 
mont, and passed northward beyond the great 
Lion Mound to Mont St. Jean, and thence 
down the road to La Haye Sainte, Belle Alli- 
ance, and Plansenoit. After having obtained 
from the guide all the assistance I desired, I 
dismissed him, and, ascended the Mound of 
the Belgian Lion, and, with maps and plans of 
the battle, studied leisurely the history of that 
memorable conflict of June 18, 1815. Later 
in the day I strolled again to and fro over the 
field, and meditated upon the fortunes of war. 
I hardly felt that I was ''treading on an em- 
pire's dust," and am yet slow to believe that 
the triumph of the allied armies that day either 
secured any permanent ''peace of Europe," or 
advanced the best interests of mankind. 

From Brussels to Ghent is an easy tour by 
rail; and here we must stop, if only for half a 



286 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

day, to look over some portions of this city of 
many revolutions. It covers an area of nearly 
six thousand acres. We go first to the famous 
old belfry, surmounted by its great, gilded 
dragon, nearly ten feet long. We ascend its 
hundreds of vSteps to the gallery, whence one 
obtains a glorious outlook over city and coun- 
try for miles and miles around. The Cathe- 
dral of St. Bavon is noted for its splendid chap- 
els and abundance of treasures of art, the most 
famous of which is John and Hubert Van 
Eyck's painting of the "Adoration of the 
Lamb." There are many other churches which 
invite our stay, and museums stored with cu- 
riosities, and grand squares and public build- 
ings, which we pass rapidly, and stop only to 
look at the mavSsive old gateway of Oudeburg, 
the remnant of the old palace where ''John of 
Gaunt" was born, and then speed away to 
Bruges. 

This city of many bridges affords the trav- 
eler a repetition of sights quite similar to those 
of Ghent. Its famous belfry, of which Long- 
fellow has sung so sweetly, is over three hun- 
dred feet high, and holds a chime of forty-eight 
bells. Happy he who can ascend that tower 
"when the summer morn is breaking," and 



IN THE NETHERLANDS. 287 

look out on the charming scene below, ''hear 
the heart of iron beating," and the chimes 
ringing their changes every fifteen minutes, — 

*'Like the psalms from some old cloister, when the 
nuns sing in the choir, 
And the great bell tolls among them, like the chant- 
ing of a friar." 

But I must bid farewell to the Netherlands^ 
with all their wealth of art and beauty, their 
monuments of renown, and busy, bustling life. 
I pass on to Ostend, hasten on board the little 
steamer, and sail over the wild North Sea to 
Old England, my honored Fatherland. 



(EFraptEr XVI 

IN ENGLAND. 






FIRST stepped on English soil at Dover. 

The great pier, which in recent time has 
^^ been constructed at this port, extends 
two thousand feet into the sea, and affords safe 
and quiet anchorage for vessels when the 
waters beyond it are wild with storms. The 
ancient castle commands the lofty chalk cliff 
and the deep valley, as it has done for a thou- 
sand years. But I had no mind to stop long in 
that old town. I took the first train for Can- 
terbury, and there alighted, found comfortable 
quarters in the Fountain Hotel, and soon 
walked out to look upon the venerable and 
historic cathedral. The associations of four- 
teen Christian centuries gather about this 
massive pile. Here we think of St. Augustine, 
who, in the latter part of the sixth century, was 
its first archbishop. Here recur memories of 
the great monk, St. Dunstan ; the great theo_ 
logian, Anselm, and the great Churchman, 

Thomas a Becket. The Archbishop of Canter- 

288 



IN ENGLAND, 289 

bury, as is well known, is ''primate of all Eng- 
land, metropolitan, and first peer of the realm.'* 
It is part of his office to crown the sovereigns 
of England, and his rank is second only to 
that of king. He wields an immense patron- 
age, and has an annual income of $75,000. 
This great church has been builded, and re- 
paired, and enlarged, and rebuilt in portions, 
and adorned by one and another, through the 
passing centuries. We were politely shown 
through all parts of the mighty structure, and 
down into the crypts. The spot in the north 
transept where Thomas a Becket was slain is 
marked by a metallic star in the pavement. 
Among the numerous monuments are those of 
the '* Black Prince," and Henry IV, and Car- 
dinal Pole, and Archbishop Langton, who was 
the author of the chapter divisions of the 
Bible. During the Huguenot persecutions of 
the sixteenth century a colony of the French 
exiles found a refuge from persecution in this 
old town, and their descendants are to this day 
permitted to occupy one part of the cathedral 
as a place of worship. 

Early one morning I walked out to the St. 
Martin's Church, built in part of Roman brick, 
and said by some to date back to the second 

^9 



290 RAMBLES /A THE OLD WORLD. 

century. It seems half buried in the hillside, 
and its upper portion is covered with a thick 
growth of ivy. Near this old structure I found 
the grave of Henry Alford, once Dean of Can- 
terbury, and author of the well-known Greek 
Testament with Notes. He is said to have 
often stood upon the spot where he is buried, 
and looked from thence over the beautiful land- 
scape, and the great cathedral rising in the 
midst of the city, and expressed a desire that 
his ashes might be allowed to repose at last 
beneath that consecrated soil. 

London. 

I arrived in London about ten o'clock one 
morning, went to Charing Cross, and read up 
an accumulation of letters that were awaiting 
me ; took the top of an omnibus, and rode 
through the Tottenham Court Road; secured 
satisfactory lodgings in Woburn Place, some 
ten minutes' walk from the British Museum; 
returned to Trafalgar Square, and glanced 
through the principal rooms of the National 
Gallery; walked thence to Westminster Abbey, 
and made the tour of all its aisles, transepts, 
and royal chapels ; found there a friend whose 
cousin was at the time a member of the House 



IN ENGLAND, 29 1 

of Commons, and with him went over and ob- 
tained admission to the gallery of the House, 
and observed the proceedings as long as I cared 
to; and then returned to my lodgings at an 
early evening hour, after having also taken a 
leisurely stroll about Russell Square. This in- 
troduction to the great metropolis was only de- 
signed to test my capacity for sight-seeing and 
pedestrian endurance! Having proved these 
to satisfaction, I retired to rest with bright an- 
ticipations of the morrow. I had desired to 
see lyondon more than any other city of the 
world. Its great sights and treasures were very 
familiar to me from pictures and from reading, 
I knew just where I wanted to go and how to 
get there without a guide. I had been long 
prepared for this, and now my hour of delight- 
ful realization had come. 

But it has seemed to me ever since that first 
bright day in lyondon that I made a mistake in 
not visiting that great city before I had seen 
the famous cities of the Continent and their in- 
numerable treasures of art and industry. I was 
full to overflowing with vivid recollections of 
great churches and temples and picture-galler- 
ies and museums and zoological gardens and 
palaces and lordly streets. But here, in one 



292 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

great city, it seemed for the time that British 
enterprise had gathered what not only equaled, 
but surpassed, all that I had seen elsewhere, 
even if all were put together. These were in- 
deed a fiiiingjftnale or climax to the rest; but 
they were less impressive to me than they 
would have been had I seen them before I saw 
the sights of the Continent. Westminster Ab- 
bey and St. Paul's and the Tower were shorn 
somewhat of their power to overwhelm by 
reason of previous gazing on many ancient 
European castles, and such cathedrals as those 
of Antwerp, Cologne, Mayence, Speyer, and 
Milan. But what may have been a loss to me 
in my own first impressions may be a gain in 
the writing of these souvenirs of travel. It 
excuses me from attempting any extensive de- 
tail of the objects of interest which all tourists 
visit in London. Those who wish a guide- 
book and specific information will turn to such 
helps as Baedeker's *' Handbook" and Hare's 
"Walks in London." My purpose is only to 
record some personal recollections and general 
impressions of memorable places. 

The three places which, above all others in 
London, remain fixed in memory, are West- 
minster Abbey, the Tower, and the British 



IN ENGLAND, 293 

Museum. No language can adequately de- 
scribe the feelings of solemnity and awe with 
which I entered, for the first time, the vener- 
able Abbey, which covers the remains of so 
many of England's mighty dead. Nor did this 
feeling wear off with repeated visits; it seemed 
rather -to grow deeper and more impressive 
with every return. I had no desire for attend- 
ants here. I chose to be alone, and was an- 
noyed at any interruption that reminded me 
that I w^as only one of hundreds of visitors. 

" O let me range the gloomy aisles alone, — 
Sad luxury ! to vulgar minds unknown, 
Along the walls where speaking marbles show 
What worthies form the hallowed mold below; 
Proud names, who once the reins of empire held, 
In arms who triumphed, or in arts excelled; 
Chiefs graced with scars and prodigal of blood, 
Stern patriots, who for sacred freedom stood; 
Just men, by whom impartial laws were given. 
And saints, who taught and led the way to heaven." 

I had no ambition to see everything. I 
probably failed to see many objects which oth- 
ers regard of prime interest. I was myself 
surprised, after having visited ''Poets' Corner" 
for a dozen times, and while listening, of a 
Sunday afternoon, to a sermon by Canon West- 
cott, to find myself sitting upon the stone slab 



294 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

which covers the grave of Charles Dickens, — 
a tomb which I had not observed before. But 
my preference was to see leisurely what I did 
see, and allow full sway to private feeling and 
meditation. The royal chapels and mausoleums 
are a solemn reminder that death levels the 
regal brow to the same domain of dust in 
which the poorest make their last repose. The 
chapel of Henry VII is almost a miracle in 
stone. Washington Irving once wrote of it, 
saying: ''Stone seems, by the cunning labor 
of the chisel, to have been robbed of its weight 
and density, suspended aloft as if by magic, 
and the fretted roof achieved with the won- 
derful minuteness and airy security of a cob- 
web." Profoundly expressive of the vanity of 
human rivalry are those chief tombs in the 
north and south aisles, which cover the bones 
of Queen Elizabeth, the child of fortune (as 
the world would say), and Mary Stuart, Queen 
of Scots, the child of misfortune. The chapel 
of Edward the Confessor, and the iron-bound 
stone coffin in which his body lies, constitute 
a sort of holy of holies in the great Abbey ; 
and here is kept the coronation chair, under 
the seat of which is inclosed the ** fatal stone 
of Scone," on which the ancient Scottish kings 



IN ENGLAND. 295 

were crowned. All the sovereigns of England, 
since Edward I, are said to have been crowned 
in this chair. The transepts and the vast nave 
of the cathedral contain perhaps as many cen- 
otaphs as tombs. 

The Tower of London begets a set of emo- 
tions altogether different from those one ex- 
periences in Westminster Abbey. The moat 
and ramparts and towers and walls and gates 
and courts and prisons and stores of armory 
are not things of beauty. The associations of 
the place are chiefly those of war, cruelty, 
treason, and various crimes, horrible execu- 
tions, broken hearts, and tears of woe. Most 
visitors rUvSh to look at the crown jewels, which 
are here kept on exhibition. Many linger in 
the galleries, where is preserved a vast collec- 
tion of ancient and medieval suits of armor. 
Others visit with mournful interest the prison- 
cells of the Beauchamp Tower, and seek to 
decipher the inscriptions on the walls made 
by the unhappy victims of jealousy or justice. 
In the yard before this tower a stone marks 
the spot where Anne Boleyn, Catharine How- 
ard, and Lady Jane Grey were beheaded. Close 
by is the chapel and cemetery where the bodies 
of these and other victims of the block were 



296 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

buried in undistinguished graves. "There is 
no sadder spot on earth than this little ceme- 
tery," wrote Macaulay. ''Death is there asso- 
ciated, not, as in Westminster Abbey and St. 
Paul's, with genius and virtue, with public 
veneration, and with imperishable renown; 
not, as in our humblest churches and church- 
3'ards, with everything that is most endearing 
in social and domestic charities, — but with 
whatever is darkest in human nature and in 
human destiny; with the savage triumph of 
implacable enemies; with the inconstancy^ the 
ingratitude, the cowardice of friends; with all 
the miseries of fallen greatness and of blighted 
fame." 

It is with entirely different feelings that we 
enter the vast rooms and examine the marvel- 
ous treasures of the British Museum. Here we 
see the records and monuments of ages and of 
empires. Turning to the left as we enter, we 
first come to a series of rooms stored with 
Roman and Graeco-Roman antiquities. Busts 
and sculptures meet our gaze on every side ; 
but we pass along to take a rapid survey, and 
obtain the general impression of the.se vast 
collections as a whole. We soon come to the 
great hall of the Elgin marbles, and look with 



IN ENGLAND. 297 

admiration and sorrow upon these masterpieces 
of Phidias, which were once the boast and 
glory of Athens. We linger before that won- 
derful frieze which formerly adorned the Par- 
thenon, and almost fancy we are marching up 
the old Acropolis with the festive procCvSsions 
of twent3^-three hundred years ago. But we 
pass into other rooms, and find whole galleries 
of Assyrian monuments, brought hither from 
the valley of the Tigris. Here we look upon 
the famous monolith of Shalmaneser, and the 
sculptured triumphs of Sennacherib, and the co- 
lossal winged bulls and lions. Adjoining these 
are three great rooms of Egyptian antiquities, 
in one of which we see the celebrated Rosetta 
stone, which served as a key to the hieroglyph- 
ics inscribed upon the monuments and temples 
of the Nile. What a bewildering accumula- 
tion of ancient treasure! One thinks of Haw- 
thorne's words, and almost sympathizes with 
him for a moment when he writes: '*It quite 
crushes a person to see so much at once; and 
I wandered from hall to hall with a weary and 
heavy heart, wishing (Heaven forgive me !) 
that the Elgin marbles and the frieze of the 
Parthenon were all burnt into lime, and that 
the granite Egyptian statues were hewn and 



298 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

squared into building-stones, and that the 
mummies had all turned to dust two thousand 
years ago." 

But such a sense of weariness and oppres- 
sion, if it come over one at the first hasty in- 
spection, will give way to a nobler feeling as 
we come again and again, and more leisurely 
study these silent witnesses of ancient times. 
This is a large and old world we live in, and 
one of the greatest faults of each new genera- 
tion is to forget or ignore the lessons to be 
learned from predecessors. History repeats it- 
self, but the masses of each new period seem 
to think that they alone have the superior 
wisdom. 

In other parts of this immense museum we 
find vast collections of old and curious books, 
the autographs of hundreds of the most fa- 
mous men and women of Europe, and almost 
countless relics of medieval times. The circu- 
lar reading-room, lighted from the dome, ac- 
commodates three hundred and sixty readers 
at one time, and each reader is supplied with a 
separate desk and all necessary facilities for 
study. He has free access to the reference li- 
brary of some twenty thousand volumes in the 
room, and can call for any book or manuscript 



IN ENGLAND. 299 

of the catalogue, and a servant will bring it to 
his desk. ''This department," wrote a friend, 
some years ago, " is the crowning glory of this 
w^onderful institution. As it was the first ob- 
ject of interest to me on entering London, so 
it is the one to which I aspire most to come, 
that I may spend in it at least one studious and 
thoughtful year before I die." 

Having now spoken briefly of the three 
most memorable places of interest in London, 
I shall not detain my reader with detailed ac- 
counts of my visits to the Zoological Gardens 
and Hyde Park and the South Kensington 
Museum, all worthy of comparison with any 
other places of the kind in Europe, and in 
many things surpassing all others. The Crys- 
tal Palace, at Sydenham, afforded a day of ex- 
quisite delight, and I could have wished to 
make many another journey thither. Again 
and again I visited magnificent St. Paul's, and 
climbed to J:he lofty dome, and tested the whis- 
pering gallery, and descended the solemn crypt, 
and mused beside the massive sarcophagi of 
Wellington and Picton and Nelson. Not less 
impressive was ancient St. Bartholomew's 
Church, and its arched gateway, and the open 
space before it where the " Smithfield martyrs" 



300 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

sealed the truth in fire and blood. Nor did I 
fail to visit St. Giles, and drop a patriot's tear 
at Milton's tomb; or go into St. Sepulcher's 
Church, and look upon the foot-worn stone that 
covers the bones of '' Captain John Smith," of 
Virginia fame. Still less could I forget '' the 
Puritan Necropolis," and no memories of Lon- 
don are more quietly impressive than those 
hours I spent in Bunhill Fields b}^ the graves 
of John Bunyan, Susannah Wesley, Isaac 
Watts, Daniel De Foe, Nathaniel Lardner, 
Thomas Goodwin, John Owen, and Daniel 
Neal. Least of all can I, as a Methodist, for- 
get the historic " City Road Chapel," just across 
the street from Bunhill Fields. There I wor- 
shiped on two successive Sundays, and had 
the honor and delight to preach in that old pul- 
pit, consecrated by the presence and ministry 
of John and Charles Wesley, Adam Clarke, 
Joseph Benson, Richard Watson, Jabez Bunt- 
ing, and William Morley Punshon. Most of 
these now lie buried in the graveyard behind 
the chapel, and the tributes to tli^ir worth in- 
scribed upon their tombstones engage the eyes 
of hundreds of interested visitors every year. 
For an Englishman, there is no city of the 
world like London. The streets, the bridges, 



IN ENGLAND. 30 1 

the river and its traffic, the underground rail- 
ways, the manufactories, the wealth and the 
poverty, the prisons and the hospitals, the 
banks and great trading-houses, the toiling 
masses, the crimes and the public charities — 
these all arrest the attention of the observant 
traveler as well as the continuous resident, and 
fill the mind with various thoughts. But we 
can not entertain them now. 

Excursion to Windsor. 

One September morning I took an early 
train of the Great Western Railway from Lon- 
don to Slough, and thence proceeded by car- 
riage a few miles northward to Stoke Pogis. 
Here are the quiet graveyard, and the old 
church and '4vy-niantled tower," made so fa- 
mous by Gray's '* Elegy:" 

" Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, 
Where heaves the turf in many a moldering heap, 
Each in his narrow cell forever laid. 

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." 

And now the poet himself sleeps among them. 
His grave is but a few feet from the church, 
and a monument has been erected to his mem- 
ory in the neighboring park. 

Returning to Slough, and passing on south- 



302 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

ward, we observe the fine buildings and grounds 
of Eton College, where the sons of English 
royalty are trained, and a little further on we 
come to the beautiful hill on which stands 
Windsor Castle. 

This magnificent royal residence consists of 
a vast group of buildings begun as far back as 
the time of William the Conqueror. One por- 
tion has been made to give place to another, 
and the whole has been from time to time re- 
newed or restored, until now the castle is quite 
a city itself. The portions usually open to vis: 
itors are the State Apartments, the Round 
Tower, the St. George's Chapel, and the Albert 
Chapel. In the first named w^e pass through a 
series of sumptuous rooms adorned with tapes- 
try and paintings and collections of old armor, 
and other objects of interest. The Queen's 
audience-chamber, the guard-chamber, and the 
grand reception-room, are particularly impress- 
ive. The Waterloo Chamber is a vast dining- 
room nearly one hundred feet long and almost 
half as broad, and profusel}^ ornamented with 
portraits of distinguished men. The Tower is 
chiefly memorable for the extensive view it 
affords of the beautiful country for many miles 
around. The interior of St. George's Chapel 



IN ENGLAND, 303 

is gorgeous beyond description, and that of the 
adjoining Albert Chapel is a splendid memorial 
of her husband by the reigning Queen Victo- 
ria. In vaults beneath these costly chapels re- 
pose the bodies of Henry VIII and his wife, 
Jane Seymour; Charles I, George III, George 
IV, William IV, and the Princess Charlotte. 

Oxford. 

One of the most delightful days I spent in 
England was an August Monday, which passed 
all too rapidly while I made a tour of the 
streets and walks and colleges of Oxford. A 
clerk of Queen Elizabeth is credited with the 
saying : 

'' He that liath Oxford seen, for beauty, grace. 
And healthfulness, ne'er saw a better place ; 
If God himself on earth abode would make, 
He Oxford, sure, would for his dwelling take." 

The first views of this university city, as we 
approach from I^ondon, are peculiarly charm- 
ing. The streams of water, the open meadows, 
the hedge-rows and woods, and especially the 
spires and towers and domes of the various 
buildings, present a picture of unsurpassed 
magnificence and beauty. As we enter the 
town from the railway station, >\^e note that 



304 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

the main streets are laid out in graceful curves. 
The various buildings of the university are 
scattered over hundreds of acres, and present 
to the eye a pleasing variety of architectural 
styles. There are more than twenty distinct 
colleges, and most of them were founded be- 
fore the time of the Protestant Reformation. 

I proceeded first to the magnificent Christ 
Church College, ascended the tow^er, and looked 
upon the famous bell known as "Great Tom." 
I was kindly shown into the old kitchen, which 
remains as it w^as in the time of Wolsey, and 
my attention was called to an ancient gridiron, 
about four feet square, which was moved on 
wheels. I was also permitted to look into the 
spacious dining-hall, richly ornamented with 
armorial bearings, and examine the bay-win- 
dow so famous for its splendid heraldic illumi- 
nation. The cathedral near by is notable for 
its old historic associations, its various chapels 
and imposing tombs. A short walk from this 
point by Corpus Christi and Oriel Colleges 
leads to the church of St. Mary the Virgin, 
which is as interesting as any of the colleges. 
The Bampton Lectures and the Lenten and 
University Sermons are preached here. It was 
in this church that Cranmer abjured popery. 



IN ENGLAND. 305 

Following High Street eastward, we reach 
Magdalen College, noticeable in the distance 
for its imposing tower. The fine quadrangle 
and cloisters, the old stone pulpit in the corner, 
the chapel, the library, the kitchen, and the 
ancient armory, are exceptionally interesting. 
The adjoining groves and shady avenues, and 
particularly that known as ''Addison's Walk," 
are delightfully inviting, both for retirement 
and variety of scenery. The other most mem- 
orable places of interest are New College, 
noted for a tower in which Protestant martyrs 
were once imprisoned, and for bells of sweet- 
est harmony, and illuminated windows of sur- 
passing splendor; the Bodleian I^ibrary, with 
its numerous curiosities and treasures; Keble 
College, worthy of a visit if only to look upon 
''the lyight of the World," the grand painting 
of Holman Hunt ; and Balliol College, in front 
of which Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley were 
burned at the stake. The Martyrs' Memorial 
near by this vSpot, is a monument worthy of 
the men who, as the inscription says, "yielded 
their bodies to be burned, bearing witness to 
the sacred truths which they had affirmed and 
maintained against the errors of the Church of 

Rome, and rejoicing that to them it was given 

20 



306 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer 
for his sake." I may add, for my Methodist 
readers, that I did not fail to visit Lincoln Col- 
lege, and look into the rooms where John 
Wesley resided, and met the '' Holy Club," 
when he was a fellow and member of this es- 
tablishment. 

One day is altogether insufficient for a satis- 
factory visit to Oxford. One who can best 
appreciate it wishes to stop here for many 
years. Most of the old distinctions between 
wealth and poverty have been abolished. The 
constitution of the university is a study in 
itself, and the terms, courses of study, lectures, 
methods of instruction, and conferring of de- 
grees have peculiarities differing in many re- 
spects from the usages of all other schools 
and colleges. 

Stratford-on-Avon. 

Two and one-half hours by rail brought me 
from Oxford to the birthplace and home of 
Shakespeare. Out of respect for my country- 
man, Washington Irving, I ''put up" at the 
Red Horse Hotel, where he once lodged ; but I 
was soon out to see the house in which the 
great poet and dramatist of England was born. 



IN ENGLAND. 307 

The room in which he first saw the light is 
still pointed out, the quaint fireplace witnesses 
its own antiquity, and a collection of Shakes- 
pearean relics and curiosities is kept on exhi- 
bition. The poet's grave is in the chancel of 
the Stratford Church, and covered by a plain 
stone-, with the following inscription : 

" Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare 
To digg the dust enclosed heare : 
Blest be the man that spares these stones, 
And curst be he that moves my bones." 

On the wall above, as if keeping guard, is 
the monumental bust, which has been copied 
a thousand times, and is believed to be the 
most faithful representation of Shakespeare's 
face now extant. His wife and two daughters 
are buried by his side. Early one morning I 
arose and walked over to Shottery, about a 
mile distant, the home of Anne Hathaway be- 
fore she became the wife of Shakespeare. Over 
those same fields the poet often passed on his 
visits to Anne's home. The thatch-roof cot- 
tage, where the young maiden lived, is still 
pointed out, and looks, for all the world, outside 
and inside, old enough to silence any skepti- 
cism as to its identity. 



3o8 rambles in the old world, 

Warwick and Kknii^worth. 

From Stratford I went to Warwick, and 
passed through the principal rooms of its an- 
cient castle, which is pronounced by Sir Wal- 
ter Scott ''the fairest monument of ancient and 
chivalrous splendor which yet remains unin- 
jured by time." From this point I passed over 
by carriage through beautiful scenery to Ken- 
ilworth Castle, where, in 1575, Robert Dudle}^ 
Earl of I^eicester, entertained Queen Elizabeth 
for seventeen days at a co.st of $5,000 a day. 
The old castle is only a stately ruin now, but 
one of the most picturesque in the world, and 
is visited every year by hundreds of artists, 
and thousands of tourists. 

Rugby and Bedford. 

From Kenil worth I journeyed to Rugby, 
and was kindly shown through the famous 
school where Thomas Arnold was once head 
master and taught so man}^ a ''Tom Brown." 
I spent an hour wandering among the inviting 
gardens of Bilton Hall, where Addison once 
lived. From Rugby I went b}^ rail to Bedford, 
and slept and dreamed one night within a few 
rods of the site of the prison where Bunyan 



IN ENGLAND, 309 

wrote the Pilgrim's Progress. The next morn- 
ing I walked down to Elston, and entered the 
humble cottage in which he was born. I re- 
turned and sought out the Baptist Church of 
which he was once the minister, and was shown 
his chair and one of the doors of his old prison. 
The times have changed, and all the Knglish 
world now venerates and loves the name of the 
humble preacher of righteousness who suf- 
fered so much persecution here. A fine bronze 
monument, erected by the Duke of Bedford, 
adorns one of the public places of the town, 
and represents Bunyan in the attitude of one 
pleading for men to be good; his eyes are 
lifted upward, and the face beams with an in- 
effable earnestness of expression. 

Cambridge. 

From Bedford I went to Cambridge, and 
made the tour of its seventeen colleges. It is 
very much like Oxford, but perceptibly infe- 
rior in extent and general impressiveness. And 
yet, what a university is this ! Think of all the 
colleges and theological seminaries of the New 
England States united under one governing 
senate, and located in one city of about forty 
thousand inhabitants, and you have a tolerably 



3IO RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

correct idea of Cambridge or of Oxford. A 
notable feature of these universities is the sys- 
tem of fellowships, which at Cambridge are 
about four hundred in number, and are of the 
nature of so many prizes. Their annual value 
varies from $500 to $1,500; while some of the 
senior fellowships are worth $2,500 a year. 



eJ 
?1 



OrfjapfBr XVII. 

IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 

^® 

MADE my exit from England by way of 

^^ Chester and Holyhead. Quaint old Ches- 
^ ^ ter, associated with the Roman Legions, 
whose coins and incriptions have been found 
here — who that has ever walked about its an- 
cient walls, and marked its gates and towers, 
and wandered through its curious '' Rows," and 
studied the carved gables of its old houses, but 
wishes to return again ? The two main streets 
cross each other at right angles, and are hewn 
out of the rock so as to be several feet below 
the level of the houses. In traversing these 
streets, one hardly knows whether he is up- 
stairs or down-stairs, or in somebody's private 
chamber. Long covered galleries seem to run 
through the front part of the second-story of 
all the adjoining houses, and to constitute the 
main business street, while the lower floors are 
used for inferior warehouses, and the private 
residences are stowed awa}^ on a third floor as 
if to get away from all the traffic below. Twice 

311 



312 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

in one day I walked the circuit of those an- 
cient walls, and reveled in the beautiful scen- 
ery around. I lingered in the Phoenix Tower, 
which has an inscription declaring that " King 
Charles stood in this tower, September 24, 
1645, and saw his army defeated on Rowton 
Moor." I sat awhile in '' Caesar's Tower," all 
that remains of the ancient castle. From the 
Tower of Trinity Church, beneath which Mat- 
thew Henr}^, the Expositor, lies buried, I wrote 
an epistle to dear friends beyond the sea. The 
old cathedral is full of interest, and its Chap- 
ter House contains the colors of the Cheshire 
Regiment which were carried at the battle of 

Bunker Hill. 

Dublin. 

A ride along the rock}^ northern coast of 
Wales to Holyhead, and a sail across the wild, 
tempestuous Irish Sea, brought me to Dublin. 
This great and beautiful city covers more than 
a thousand acres, a considerable portion of its 
site having been reclaimed from the sea. The 
river Liffey, running from west to east, divides 
the city into two nearl}^ equal portions, and is 
crossed by nine or ten bridges. Its banks are 
faced with magnificent granite walls. The 
public buildings are all of an imposing charac- 



IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND, 313 

ter, and the open squares are ornamented with 
monuments to the honor of distinguished men. 
The Phoenix Park, of nearly two thousand 
acres, is one of the most beautiful public re- 
sorts of its kind in Great Britain. The grounds 
and buildings of Trinity College occupy more 
than forty acres. This grand institution, 
founded in 1591, enjoys all university powers 
and privileges, and is finely equipped for car- 
rying on the work of higher education. Such 
men as Ussher, and Berkeley, and Sir W. Ham- 
ilton, and Burke, and Sheridan, and Swift, and 
Goldsmith have gone forth from these halls of 
learning. I was shown the place, on Merrion 
Square, where Wellington was born, and the 
old house near St. Patrick's Cathedral which 
is famous for being the birthplace of Tom 
Moore. The cathedral itself is memorable for 
its historic associations and numerous monu- 
ments; but nothing it contains attracts more 
visitors than the two large marble slabs which 
cover the graves of Dean Swift and his much- 
injured ^^ Stella." 

BKI.FAST AND THK GiANT'S CauSKWAY. 

The ride from Dublin northward along the 
eastern coast of Ireland to Belfast afforded 



314 RAMBLES IN THE OLD IVORLD. 

many a beautiful view, but nothing to detain 
me in this writing. Belfast is said to be the 
second city of the Emerald Isle. It bears a 
general appearance of enterprise and prosper- 
ity. Its trade is extensive and its manufacto- 
ries numerous. Its public, and many of its 
private, buildings are both an ornament and an 
honor to. the country. I visited with special 
interest the buildings of the Methodist College. 
The new scholastic year was about to begin, 
and many students were gathering from differ- 
ent parts of the land. The entire equipment 
of this noble institution is commendable, and 
promises to sustain in the future the honorable 
record of its work from the beginning. 

From Belfast I made a day's excursion to 
the Giant's Causeway. My first ride on an 
electric railway was from Portrush to the 
Causeway, a distance of about seven miles. I 
spent many hours in wandering over those 
singular formations of basaltic rock. I at- 
tempted to climb the high cliffs, and worked 
my way over the rocks and ledges for a dis- 
tance of two or three hundred feet above the 
sea; but as the bold columns became more 
precipitous and threatening, I made a retreat, 



IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 315 

and followed a path around the point of rocks 
for several miles. Returning, I sat down upon 
the columnar rocks near to the place where the 
lower formation dips into the sea, and watched 
the rough billows as they rolled toward me 
and dashed wildly over the tops of the basaltic 
prisms. These polygonal bricks, so closely set 
together that the waters do not enter the crev- 
ices, may well have been the occasion of myth- 
ical legend. Here, says the old tradition, the 
giants once attempted to build a magnificent 
highway across the sea to Scotland; but the 
sea was mightier than the giants, and to this 
day rolls its irresistible tide against these use- 
less pillars of rock, and laughs at even the 
proudest works of giants' hands. 

Returning from the Causeway, I stopped an 
hour or more at Dunluce Castle, now a moss- 
covered ruin. A narrow wall unites it with 
the mainland, and its foundation is a lofty, in- 
sulated rock that overhangs the sea. Under- 
neath this rock is a huge cave, opening a 
passage from the mainland to the water. 
The origin and history of this old castle is 
wrapped in as deep a mystery as the poems of 
Ossian. 



^l6 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 



o 



G1.ASGOW. 

A night journey by steamer from Belfast 
brought me to Glasgow, the great commercial 
metropolis of Scotland. In its vast shipyards 
most of the steamers of Great Britain are con- 
structed, and its chemical works are said to be 
the largest of the kind in the world. The 
principal business streets compare w^ell with 
those of other great cities ; the George Square 
is admirably adorned with colossal statues ; the 
West End Park, the Queen's Park, the Alex- 
andra, and the Green, and the Botanic Gar- 
dens, are elegant and very inviting; but after 
the notice given in these pages to so man}'' 
things of this kind, I may well pass these by 
without further remark. The new buildings of 
the University of Glasgow are situated near 
the West End Park, and are w^orthy of the 
growing fame and influence of an institution 
that has sent forth such men as Adam Smith 
and Reid and Miller and Melville and Baillie 
and Burnet. The cathedral is a somewhat 
gloomy but massive pile, and dates its founda- 
tion in the twelfth century. Its present length 
is three hundred and nineteen feet, and its 
vast but gracefully-tapering spire is two hun- 



IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 317 

dred and twenty-five feet high. The stained- 
glass windows are finely executed, and attract 
the special study of visitors. The crypts are 
extensive, and consist of long, dark aisles run- 
ning beneath massive Gothic arches. They 
were once used for purposes of worship, and 
fitted up with pews, but are now cold and dis- 
mal as any vaulted sepulcher could be. Near 
the cathedral, and separated from its grounds 
by a small lake, is the Necropolis. It is reached 
by a narrow road over what is called the 
''Bridge of Sighs," and occupies an eminence 
which forms a most appropriate background 
to the cathedral. It contains many monuments 
of commanding size and beauty, chief among 
which is the one erected to the memory of 

Knox. 

Ayr. 

Glasgow is a point of departure for many 
delightful excursions. Chief of thCvSe are the 
trips easily made to Paisley Abbey, and Ham- 
ilton Palace, and Bothwell Castle, and the Falls 
of the Clyde. But probably Ayr and the 
neighboring birthplace of Burns attract more 
visitors than any of those just named. I con- 
fess that it was the first object of my care, after 
reaching Glasgow, to make this trip of forty 



3l8 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

miles to see the early home of Scotland's great 
lyric poet. I walked over the *' Auld Brig " 
and the New, but heard no windy words of 
contending sprites. I climbed the Gothic 
structure which occupies the place of the old 
Wallace Tower, and looked upon the ''drowsy 
dungeon clock," which is mentioned in the 
familiar poem of '* The Brigs of Ayr." I wan- 
dered out along the banks of the winding 
stream, and observed that now, as in the days 
of its famous poet, 

*' Ayr gurgling kissed his pebbled shore, 

O'erhuug with wild woods, thickening green ; 

The fragrant birch and hawthorn hoar 

Twined amorous round the raptured scene ; 

The flowers sprang wanton to be prest, 
And birds sang love on every spray." 

A two miles' w^alk from Ayr brought me to 
*' Kirk Alloway," a broken ruin now, which 
looks as if it might well be haunted even more 
than in the olden time. A few rods distant is 
the bridge made so famous by "Tam O'Shan- 
ter's Ride," and there my friend and I w^ere 
met by a troublesome talker, who insisted on 
rehearsing to us the poem w^hich has made 
the spot immortal in literature. But we soon 
turned away, and left him reciting to the '* Auld 
Brig," while we examined the beautiful Burns 



IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND, 319 

Monument in the immediate vicinity. It occu- 
pies the center of a garden, and contains an in- 
teresting collection of articles associated with 
the life of Burns, such as the Bible he gave his 
Highland Mary, various portraits of the poet, 
and various editions of his works. 

From Gi^asgow to Stiri^ing. 

One of the tours from Glasgow which I 
much desired, but failed to make, was the pop- 
ular excursion by steamer to Oban, Staffa, and 
lona, compassing the entire Isle of Mull. But 
the disappointment was offset by that roman- 
tic tour to Stirling, by way of I^ochs I^omond 
and Katrine and the Trosachs. Proceeding 
by rail to Balloch, the southern extremity of 
lyoch lyomond, we found a steamer waiting for 
us at the pier. The beautiful lake opens 
around us in exquisite loveliness, and as the 
boat steams out northward we observed Bal- 
loch Castle on the one side, and the admirable 
Cameron HoUvSe upon the other. We pass 
along among the numerous islands which add 
so much to the charming outlook ; we note the 
hills which tower up in the distance ; we touch 
at various landings on the way, crossing and 
recrossing the lake, and in the enthusiasm 



3 20 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

which so much visible beauty begets we imag- 
ine that each new scene that opens on the eye 
is more delightful than its predecessor. The 
Loch narrows as we proceed, until it becomes 
like a small stream of water. Among the 
numerous peaks that lift their heads above 
us, we notice Ben Lomond as monarch of 
them all, towering aloft more than three thou- 
sand feet above the water. At Inversnaid 
we disembarked, and took a coach five miles 
over the mountains to Stronachlachar Pier 
and Hotel on Loch Katrine. The sail over 
this smaller lake was even more entrancing 
than that of Lomond. Our little steamer 
wound its way through the enchanting scenes, 
and every eye was intent to catch each new 
surprise of landscape as it burst upon the 
view. And here at last was " Ellen's Isle," 
made immortal by the genius of Scott. "There," 
said a guide, who seemed to know all about it, 
'' there is the very spot where Fitz James 
landed, and yonder," said he, pointing up the 
mountain, '4s the dread ' Goblin's Cave.' " On 
the opposite side, he pointed out the *' silver 
strand," where the royal hunter 

*' Stood concealed amid the Ijrakc 
To view the Lady of the Lake." 



L IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND, 32 1 

I 

We landed and took our journey through ''the 

deep Trosach's wildest nook," and, ascending 

the mountain, looked back from more than one 

''Airy point, 
Where, gleaming with the setting sun. 
One burnished sheet of living gold. 
Loch Katrine la}^ beneath us rolled, — 
In all her length far winding lay. 
With promontory, creek, and bay. 
And islands that, empurpled bright. 
Floated amid the livelier light, 
And mountains that like giants stand 
To sentinel enchanted land. 
High on the south huge Ben-Venue 
Down on the lake in masses threw 
Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled, 
The fragments of an earlier world ; 
A wildering forest feathered o'er 
His ruined sides and summit hoar. 
While on the north, through middle air, 
Ben-A'an heaved high his forehead bare." 

Onward we went by the side of Loch 
Achray, and over the Brig of Turk, and to 
Loch Vennachar, with Ben-Ledi towering away 
in the distance, and onward still, 

" Till past Clan-Alpine's utmost guard, 
As far as Coilaiitogle's ford." 

And then we hastened onward to the train, 
and made our way more rapidly than Fitz 

21 



322 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

James's fiery steed Bayard brought him to the 
towers and town of Stirling, "the bulwark of 
the North." 

The chief attraction of Stirling is its old 
castle, perched on a precipitous rock, and com- 
manding one of the finest views in all Scotland. 
Its history is connected with the various wars 
between the English and the Scotch; it was 
long the favorite residence of the kings of 
Scotland, and the birthplace of James II and 
James V. An official guide conducts visitors 
through the castle, and calls attention to the 
points of greatest interest. He never fails to 
lead you to the fatal room where James II, in 
a moment of passion, stabbed William, Earl of 
Douglas, and shows the window out of which 
the lifeless body was cast into the yard below. 
From "The Lady's Lookout" he points out 
the vale of Menteith, and the peaks of Ben- 
Lomond, Ben- Venue, Ben-A'an, and Ben-Ledi. 
Most of the objects of interest in and about the 
city are visible from various parts of this castle, 
but especially the battle-field of Bannockburn, 
where, on June 24, 13 14, Robert Bruce, with 
30,000 Scotch, defeated Edward II with 100,000 
English, and secured the independence of 
Scotland. The place is now an open, cultivated 



IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND, 2>^2> 

field, with no monument or memorial except 
*'the Bore Stone," on which Bruce planted his 
standard on that day of triumph. That lone* 
relic occupies a high place on the field, but 
has been so much injured by visitors that it 
has been found necessary to cover it with a 
network of iron to protect it from further des- 
ecration. 

The Greyfriars' Church and the adjoining 
cemetery attract all visitors. Monuments to 
Scotland's great reformers, the '%adies' Rock," 
and the Rock Fountain, are well worthy of in- 
spection. One tombstone bears the following 
inscription : 

'' Our life is but a winter day ; 
Some only breakfast and away, 
Others to dinner stay. 

And are full fed. 
The oldest man but sups, 

And goes to bed; 
Large is his debt 

That lingers out the day ; 
He that goes soonest 

Has the least to pay." 

Edinburgh. 

Of all foreign cities which I have visited 
that one which lingers in memory as the most 
homelike, that one which above all others I 



324 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

would choose for a life-long residence, and which 
combines in itself and its environs that inexpli- 
cable charm of city and country, of beauti- 
ful landscape and of historic monuments, op- 
portunities of quiet study and of charming ex- 
cursions, friendly association with men and 
women of purest morals and of highest cul- 
ture, that city is Edinburgh, the modern 
Athens of the North. Ah ! what a ramble of 
glory is that to Roslin Castle, especially if one 
is able to make it on foot, and take his time, 
and fill his soul with the visions of beauty and 
romance to be gathered by the way! Who 
that has made the journey can ever forget his 
visit to Abbotsford, and the armory and li- 
brary and study and drawing-room of its 
builder, and the walk thence to Melrose Abbey, 
and the sight of that splendid ruin, which the 
magic pen of Scott has so enhanced ! Or 
who, having seen, can ever forget Dryburgh 
Abbey and the tomb of the *' Wizard of the 
North?" 

My first walk in Edinburgh, and one to be 
recommended to tourists, was through the mag- 
nificent Princes Street, by the elegant and im- 
posing Monument of Scott, to Calton Hill. I 
ascended Nelson's Monument, a lofty circular 



IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 325 

tower, which affords a wonderful view over the 
entire city and all the region round about. A 
large ball on the flagstaff, moved by an elec- 
tric shock from the Royal Observatory, drops 
exactly at one o'clock each day, and at the 
same instant a time-gun is fired from the cas- 
tle on the opposite mountain. Other monu- 
ments on this hill attract attention, especially 
those of Burns, Dugald Stewart, Playfair, and 
David Hume. 

My next procedure was directly to the cas- 
tle which marks the highest and oldest part of 
the city, and, like Calton Hill, commands a 
magnificent view. There I looked my fill 
upon the crown and scepter and sword of 
state, the precious regalia of the old Scottish 
royalty, which are kept on exhibition in the 
so-called Crown-room. I visited Queen Mary's 
room, where James VI was born, and Queen 
Margaret's Chapel, and also paid all proper 
respect to the huge cannon known as 
Mons Meg. 

But the walk from the castle down High 
Street and Canongate to Holyrood Palace is 
probably the most interesting experience 
which the ordinary traveler enjoys in Kdin- 
burgh. Here we find many a famous "close" — 



326 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

that is, a narrow passage from the street to a 
court closed in with surrounding houses. One 
of the first of these to attract our attention is 
Blair's Close, in which we find the mansion of 
the Duke of Gordon, with an armorial carving 
over the door, and a cannon-ball sticking in the 
gable. Next we notice " Ramsay Gardens," 
back of the waterworks, where Allan Ramsay, 
author of the " Gentle Shepherd," lived and 
died. We pass the fine building used for the 
meetings of the General Assembly of the 
Church of Scotland; and the entrance into the 
famous "West Bow," an ancient street which 
leads down to the Grassmarket ; and Milne's 
Court, opposite the Bow, dating from the year 
1690; and James's Court, an old aristocratic 
dwelling-place ; and Riddle's Close, where 
Hume lived several years, and where, it is said, 
he began his History of England; and Brodie's 
Close, and Lady Stair's Close, and Baxter's 
Close — all famous in their way — and come to 
the ancient and venerable St. Giles's Church. 
As we approach this historic edifice we ob- 
serve the figure of a large heart wrought into 
the pavement of the street, and are told that it 
marks the site of the Old Tolbooth, the orig- 
inal Parliment House of Scotland, afterwards 



IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 327 

used as a prison, and commonly called '' The 
Heart of Midlothian." The Church of St. 
Giles has witnessed a long and varied history. 
Its original architectural features have been 
obliterated by modern renovations. At one 
time it contained more than forty different 
chapels and altars. After the Reformation it 
was divided off into four places of worship. 
Here the bold reformer, John Knox, preached. 
Here, in 1643, ''the Solemn League and Cove- 
nant" was formally confirmed. One may linger 
long in the chapels and aisles of this old struc- 
ture, and feel that he treads on holy ground. 

At the back of the church a stone in the 
pavement marked J. K., is believed to desig- 
nate the place of John Knox's grave. The 
old cemetery, which adjoined the church on 
the south, is now covered with a stone pave- 
ment, and beyond it rise the stately buildings 
of the Parliament House and the Advocates' 
lyibrary. Proceeding eastward on High Street 
we pass Dunbar's Close, where Cromwell's 
Ironsides lodged after the battle which made 
them masters of the Scottish Capital, and come 
to the notable, old-time-looking house, project- 
ing somewhat into the street, where John Knox 
lived, studied, preached, and died. From this 



32^ RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD, 

point on to its eastern terminus the street is 
called the Canongate, and contains many a 
close and house of historic interest. The old 
Canongate Churchyard is noted for the graves 
of Adam Smith, Dugald Stewart, David Allen, 
the artist, and Adam Ferguson, the poet. By 
the grave of this last named, it is said that 
Burns once came, uncovered his head, sat down 
and wept. 

Emerging from the Canongate we come to 
Holyrood Palace and the old Abbey of the 
same name, which are both worthy of repeated 
visits. The Abbey is but an imposing ruin 
now. Its history takes us back to the begin- 
ning of the twelfth century, and is intermixed 
with curious legends. Here Charles I was 
crowned King of Scotland, and many a royal 
pair have been married, and the bodies of sev- 
eral kings have been buried within these an- 
cient walls. The present palace, which oc- 
cupies the site of the old Holyrood House, is a 
fine structure, built in the form of a quad- 
rangle around a spacious inner court, and 
strengthened at the two front corners with 
projecting turrets, which add notabl}^ to its 
beauty and impressiveness. Its principal apart- 
ments are open dail}" to visitors, who are 



IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND, 329 

conducted through the picture-gallery, Lord 
Darnley's rooms, and the apartments of Queen 
Mary. In these last we are shown the queen's 
private dining-room, her bedroom and dressing- 
room, her audience-room and the secret pas- 
sage by which Darnley and his attendants en- 
tered when they took the life of Rizzio, who 
was closeted with the queen. The spot on 
the floor where Rizzio fell, pierced with many 
a dagger-thrust, is pointed out at the head of 
the staircase. 

Beyond this palace the tourist may walk or 
drive to Arthur's Seat, a rocky eminence which 
rises more than eight hundred feet above the 
sea, and commands the finest view in all this 
part of Scotland. The foot-traveler will visit 
*' St. Anthony's Chapel" on his way up or 
down the mountain, and also drink of the water 
of '' St. Anthony's well," a notable fountain 
issuing from the base of a huge boulder. The 
chapel is a small but very ancient ruin, the 
history of which is almost lost in the mivSt of 
legend. 

The south part of the city of Edinburgh 
has also its numerous places of historic inter- 
est. The splendid buildings of the university, 
the ample librar}^ and the fine equipment of 



330 RAMBLES IN THE OLD WORLD. 

all its departments, make this noble institution 
prominent among the great universities of the 
United Kingdom. The Grassmarket below 
the castle rock is sadly memorable for the 
many executions which occurred there in 
former times. The spot where the horrible 
gibbet stood is marked by a circle and a cross 
in the pavement. To the west of the Grass- 
market is the little street called West Port, 
where Chalmers established his mission church. 
It was my good fortune, one Sunday morning, 
to attend service at that old ''Territorial 
Church," and hear Professor Blaikie preach the 
induction sermon of the new pastor. The 
beautiful structure of Heriot's Hospital is also 
near this place, with the Greyfriars' Church and 
churchyard on the east of it. From this point 
a broad street leads southward to the Meadows, 
an extensive park laid out with walks and 
shade-trees, and beyond this is the cemetery, 
in which rest the mortal remains of Hugh 
Miller, .Dr. Chalmers, and Dr. Guthrie. 

But I must put a stop to this record of my 
rambles. And could I leave off in any better 
place than this beautiful city of Scotland? Fain 
would I linger and roam a thousand times over 
these romantic hills of the north. Where is 



IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 33 1 

the country that has a better right than Scot- 
land to boast of heroes and warriors and states- 
men and scholars and divines and historians 
and poets? Where is the land that is more 
famed for sturdy moral character, simplicity 
and beauty of home-life, and all that is uplift- 
ing and refining in the noblest culture of hu- 
manity? All true patriots, of whatever land, 
will gladly join with Burns in singing: 

'* O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! 

For whom miy warmest wish to heaven is sent. 

Long may the hardy sons of rustic toil 

Be blest with health and peace and sweet content ! 

And O, may Heaven their simple lives prevent 

From luxury's contagion, weak and vile ! 

Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, 

A virtuous populace may rise the while, 

And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved 
isle." 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Abbotsford ^ 324 

Abelard 230 

Achard 254 

AcTO-Corinth 138 

Acropolis of Athens 126 

Addison 305, 308 

Adolph of Nassau 255 

^galeos, Mt 135 

^gina 126 

^schylus 130 

Agamemnon 140 

Agnano Lake 154 

Agrigentum 149 

Ahr 242 

Akragas 149 

Alban Hills 169 

Albany 12 

Albert of Austria 255 

Alexander 121 

Alexandria Troas 121 

Alford, Henry 290 

Allen, David 328 

Alps 97, 186, 193, 198, 200 

Alva, Duke of 284 

Amalfi 165 

Americus Vespucius 178 

Amsterdam 275 

Andermatt 203 

Andernach 243 

Angelo Castle 171 

Annathal 58, 59 

Anschar 18, 24 

Anselm .288 

Anthony Chapel 329 

Antwerp 279 

Apennines 186 

ApoUinaris 242 



Page. 

Appian Way 169, 175 

Arch of Triumph, Paris. .210 

Archilochus 122 

Arenfels 243 

Areopagus 131 

Arethusa 145 

Argonauts 121 

Argos 140 

Aristophanes 130 

Arminius 277 

Arno 178 

Arnold, Thomas 308 

Arth 199 

Arthur's Seat 329 

Assyrian Monuments, 

216, 297 

Athens 126 

Athos, Mt 122 

Attila 56 

Augsburg 55, 75 

Augusteum 50 

Augustine 18, 288 

Augustus, King Ernest.. 27 

Aurelius, Emperor 97 

Avernus 155 

Ayr 317 

BacchUvS Theater 130 

Baden 103 

Baiaf , Bay of 155 

Baillie 316 

Balkan Mts 105 

Balliol College 305 

Balloch 319 

Baltic Sea 263 

Bannockburn 322 

Barbarossa 73 

333 



334 



INDEX, 



Page. 
Bartholomew Church .... 299 
Bartholomew Massacre.. .218 

Bavaria, Statue 81 

Bavon, Cathedral 286 

Bazars of Constantinople, 112 

Beatrice 255 

Beauchamp Tower 295 

Beaumarchais 230 

Becket, Thomas a 288 

Bedford.. 308 

Belfast 313 

Bellini 230 

Bellosguardo 178 

Ben-A'an 321 

Ben-I^edi 322 

Ben-I^omond 322 

Bennett 14 

Benson, Joseph 300 

Ben-Venue 322 

Beranger 230 

Berkeley 313 

Berlin 29 

Berne 206 

Bernstorff 38 

Bertheau 44 

Bilton Hall 308 

Bingen 252, 256 

Bismarck 37 

Bithynia 108 

Black Prince 289 

Black Tower 95 

Blaikie 330 

Bleikeller 24 

Bliicher 263 

Blue Grotto 158 

Bodenbach 91 

Boleyn, Anne 295 

Bonn 43, 44, 238 

Boppard 248 

Bora, Catharine Von 50 

Bore Stone 323 

Bornhofen 248 

Bosphorus 108 

Bothwell Castle 317 

Boulgourloo 108, 119 

Bradley 14 

Branbach 248 



Page. 

Brandenburg 23 

Brandenburg Gate 30 

Bremen 19, 272 

Bremerhaven 19 

Brenner Pass 193 

Brienz 206 

British Museum 296 

Browning, Mrs. — quoted, 179 

Brozik 96 

Bruce 322 

Briihl 103 

Bruges 286 

Brunhild 56 

Brussels 282 

Bugenhagen 53 

Bulgaria 103, 105 

Bunhill Fields 300 

Bunting, Jabez 300 

Bunyan 300, 308 

Burke 313 

Burnet 316 

Burns 317, 325, 328 

Burns — quoted 3 18, 331 

Byron — quoted, 

17, 173, 183, 192 
Byzantium 107 

Cesar's Tower 312 

Calton Hill 324 

Calvin 207 

Cambridge 309 

Canal of Corinth 137 

Canongate 325, 328 

Canova 99, loi 

Canterbury 288 

Capitoline Hill 171 

Capri 157 

Capua i68 

Caracalla, Baths 170, 175 

Carlsruhe 256 

Carpathian Mts 97 

Cartellier 230 

Casino, Mt 169 

Cassel 64 

Castle of Asia. .• 118 

Castle of Europe 117 

Catania 142 



INDEX. 



335 



Page. 

Cattegat 266 

Caub 251 

Cenchrese 138 

Chalcedon 1 18 

Chalmers 330 

Chamonix 205 

Champollion 230 

Champs Blysees 211 

Charlemagne 56, loi 

Charles 1 303, 328 

Charles IV \... 96 

Charles V, Kmperor 55 

Charles XII '^^, 269 

Charlotte, Princess 303 

Charlottenburg 35 

Charybdis 143 

Chester 311 

Chopin 230 

Christlieb 44, 239 

Chrysostom 107 

Circus Maximtis 171 

City Road Chapel 300 

Clarke, Adam 300 

Cloaca Maxima 171 

Clovis 56, 222 

Cluny Museum 221 

Clyde, Falls of 317 

Cranach 52 

Cranmer 305 

Crimean War 118 

Cumse 155 

Cyclades 126 

Coblenz 243 

Coilantogle Ford 321 

Coliseum 171 

Cologne 238 

Columbus 184, 192 

Colvin 14, 158 

Conrad II 73 

Constance 195 

Constance I^ake 194 

Constantine 105, 107, iii 

Constantine, Arch of, in 

Rome 171 

CoUvStantine, Arch of, in 

Thessalonica 124 

Constantinople 106 



Page. 

Copenhagen 263, 272 

Coppet 207 

Corinth 136 

Cornelius 78 

Correggio 90, 180 

Dagobert 233 

Dannecker 255 

Dante 178 

Danton 220 

Danube 75, 103 

Daphni, Convent 133 

Dardanelles 120 

Darius 116 

Darnley 329 

D'Aubigne 56 

De Foe 300 

Delfthaven 278 

Delitzsch 45 

Delphi Ill 

Demosthenes 131 

Dervishes no 

Descartes 276 

De Stael, Madame 207 

Dickens 294 

Dillmann 40 

Dionysius, Ear 146 

Doge's Palace 186, 191 

Dogs of Constantinople . . 112 

Dornbach 103 

Douglas, Earl of 322 

Dover 288 

Dover, Straits of 18 

Drachenfels 240 

Dragon's Gorge 58 

Dresden 86 

Druids 18 

Drusus 253 

Dublin' 312 

Dudley, Robert 308 

Duhm 43 

Dunluce Castle 315 

Diirer 74,93 

Dutch Customs 273 

Dryburgh Abbey 324 

Edinburgh 323 

Editha 27 



336 



ITsDEX. 



Page. 

Edward, Confessor 294 

Edward II 322 

Egnatian Way 124 

Eg^^ptian Antiquities, 

216, 297 

Ehrenbreitstein 243 

Eichhorn 44 

Eiger 200 

Eisenach 56 

Eisleben 61 

Elbe 91, 260 

Elector, The Great 33 

Eleonora 270 

Eleusis 127, 132 

Elgin Marbles 296 

Elizabeth, Queen 294, 308 

Ellen's Isle 320 

Elmo, Castle 155 

Engers 243 

Erasmus 278 

Erechtheus, Temple 129 

Erfurt 61 

Erpel 242 

Etna, Mt 142 

Eton College 301 

Euboea 126, 134 

Eudoxia, Queen 108 

Euripides 130 

Eustache, Church 229 

Farel 207 

Falkenburg 251 

Faro Point 143 

Ferguson, Adam 328 

P^ichte 35 

Finsteraarhorn 200, 204 

Florence 177 

Fliieien 202 

Fontainebleau 233 

Forum, Roman 171 

Frankfort 254 

Frederica, Queen 27 

Frederick, Crown Prince 

of Germany 38 

Frederick the Great 31 

Frederick I 270 

Frederick the Wise 55, 57 



Page. 

Freiburg 206 

Fuorigrotta 155 

Furka Pass 203 

Furstenberg 251 

Galileo 178 

Gate of Lions 140 

Geneva 207 

Geneva Lake . .^ 206 

Genoa 184 

George III 303 

George IV 303 

Gessler 201 

Ghent 285 

Giant's Causeway 314 

Gibbon 207 

Girgenti 149 

Glasgow 316 

Gloel 44 

Glj^ptothek 79 

Goblin's Cave 320 

Godesberg 240 

Godfre^' Bouillon 283 

Goethe 82, 86, 255 

Golden Horn 106, 108, no 

Goldsmith .313 

Goodwin, Thomas 300 

Goschenen 203 

Gothard Railwaj^ 201 

Gothenburg 266 

Gottingen 43 

Gray 270, 301 

Grassmarket 326, 330 

Green Vault 88 

Gregory, C. R 45 

Gregory VII 253 

Grey, Lady Jane 295 

Grimsel 205 

Grosse 89 

Grotius 277 

Guicciardini 178 

Gustavus Adolphus.. .87, 269 

Gustavus Vasa 270 

Gutenberg 253 

Gutenfels 251 

Guthe 45 

Guthrie 330 



INDEX, 



337 



Page. 

Haarlem 276 

Hadrian's Arch 127 

Hadrian's Tomb 171 

Hague, The 277 

Halberstadt 23 

Halle 43 

Hamburg 260, 272 

Hamilton Palace 317 

Hamilton, Sir W 313 

Hammerstein 243 

Hannibal 168, 177 

Hanover 26 

Hapsburgs 98 

Hartz Mts 84 

Hathaway, Anne 307 

Hawthorne — quoted 297 

Hegel 35 

Heidelberg 43, 44, 66 

Helicon, Mt 138 

Heloise 230 

Henry IV 231, 253, 289 

Henry VII Chapel 294 

Henry VIII, tomb 303 

Henry Matthew 312 

Herder 82, 86 

Herod Atticus 130 

Herodotus iii, 135 

Herold 230 

Hiero, Altar of 147 

Hietzing 103 

High Street 325 

Hildegarde 248 

Hildegunde 241 

Hippodrome iii 

Hissarlik 121 

Hoff 89 

Hoffman 89 

Hohe Sonne 58 

Holy Club 306 

Holyhead 311 

Holyrood Palace 325, 328 

Hortense 234 

Hospenthal 303 

Hotel des Invalides 223 

Hotel de Ville, Antwerp. 281 
Hotel de Ville, Brussels. .284 
Hotel de Ville, Paris. 210, 218 



Page. 

How^ard, Catharine 295 

Hradschin 93 

Hiibner 89 

Huguenots 289 

Humboldt 31, 35 

Hume 325 

Hungary 105 

Hunt, Holman 305 

Huss 55>92, 195 

Ida, Mt 121 

Imbros 121 

Ingoldstadt 75 

Innsbruck 193 

Interlachen 206 

Inversnaid 320 

lona 319 

Irish Sea 312 

Irving, Washington — 

quoted 294 

Ischia 155 

Italian sunset 161 

Jacoby 25 

James II 322 

James Vi 325 

Janissaries iii 

Jerome of Prague. .68, 92, 195 

Joan of Arc 231 

Johannisberg Castle 252 

John of Gaunt 286 

John of Nepomuk 96 

John XXIII 195 

Josephine 233 

Julius, Bishop 70 

Jura Mts 200 

Justinian 108 

Kaftan 42 

Kalenberg 103 

Kamphausen 44, 239 

Kappel 199 

Karl, August 82 

Kauffman, Angelica 89 

Keble College 305 

Kenil worth Castle 308 

Kensington Museum 299 



338 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Kepler 75 

Kermesse 280 

Kirk Alloway 318 

Kleinert 40? 41 

Klosterneuburg 103 

Knox 317, 327 

Kriemhild 56 

Krafft 72 

I, AGARDE 44 

I^ahn 247 

Lahneck 248 

Ivampsacus 120 

I^and'sEnd 18 

I^andskron 243 

Langton 289 

Ivaplace 230 

Ivardner 300 

lyateran Church 170 

Ivatimer 205 

I/ausanne 206 

I^axenburg 103 

lycaning Tower 183 

I/echaeum 138 

Ivcibnitz 26 

I^eipzig 43, 45 

lyemnos 121 

lyeonardo da Vinci 185 

lyeopoldsberg 103 

Leutze 22 

I^eyden 276 

lyiebenstein 248 

Iviffey River 312 

lyincoln College 306 

lyinden 29 

I^och lyomond 319 

lyoch Katrine 319 

Ivommatzsch 42 

I^ondon 290 

Lrong 116 

lyongfellow — quoted, 

70, 72, 74, 167, 205, 2S7 

IvOuis XIII 231 

IvOuis XIV 231 

IvOuis XV 233 

lyoretto Chapel loi 

lyouise, Queen 33 



f»AGE, 

lyouvre, The 216 

I^oyola 75 

I^indau 194 

lyiibeck 262, 272 

I^ucerne 201 

lyucerne I^ake 200 

Ivucrinus 155 

IvUthardt 45 

lyUther 32, 48 

Macaulay — quoted 296 

Machiavelli 178 

Malcom — quoted 17 

Madeleine 226 

Magdalen College 305 

Magdeburg 23, 27, 55 

Mahomet II 117 

Malmaison 234 

Mansfield 48 

Marat 222 

Marathon 134 

Maria Theresa loi 

Marie Antoinette 220, 236 

Marie Louise 234 

Marienberg 70 

Marienthal 58 

Marksburg 248 

Marmora Sea 106, 108, 120 

Mars' Hill 132 

Mary, Queen of Scots, 

294, 325, 329 

Matterhorn 204 

Maurice %) 

Maximilian of Bavaria. . . 93 
Maximilian of Mexico. . .101 

Mayence 252 

Medici 178, 182 

Megara 134 

Meiringen 206 

Melanchthon 49, 51 > 55 

Mendelssohn 35 

Menteith, Vale of 322 

Melrose Abbey 324 

Melville 316 

Merx 44 

Messina 143 

Michael Angelo 178, 180 



INDEX. 



339 



Page. 

Midlothian, Heart of 327 

Milan 185 

Miller, Hugh 316, 330 

Milton's Tomb 300 

Mirabeau 222, 229, 232 

Mission Institue 25, 254 

Modling 103 

Mont Blanc 205, 208 

Moore, Tom 313 

Moretus 281 

Morgue of Paris 219 

Moselle 243, 244, 246 

Moslem worship. 109, no, 113 

Mouse Tower 251 

Mull, Isle of 319 

Munich 75 

Murillo 217 

Museums of Berlin 33 

Mustapha 87 

Mycenae 140 

Nahe 251, 257 

Nantes, Edict of 231 

Naples 153 

Napoleon, 
30, 87, 102, 185, 189, 210, 212 
215, 225, 227, 232. 

Napolen III 65 

Napoleon's tomb 224 

Narrows, The. 13 

Nauplia 139 

Neal, Daniel 300 

Neander 35 

Neckar 66, 68, 207 

Nelson 299 

Nelson's Monument in Ed- 
inburgh 324 

Nemea 139 

Nette 243 

Neu-Waldegg 103 

Neuweid 243 

Niagara 12 

Nibelungen 251 

Nibelungen l^ied 56, 77 

Nicias 148 

Niederwald 252, 257 

Nightingale, Florence 118 



Page. 

Nisita 155 

Nissa 105 

NoUingen 251 

North Cape 260 

North Sea 18, 287 

Notre Dame, Paris 218 

Nuremberg 70 

Nyon 207 

Oban 319 

Oberaarhorn 204 

Oberwerth 247 

Oberwesel 251 

Oriental Express 104 

Ortygia 146 

Ossian 315 

Ostend 287 

Otho the Great 27 

Oudeburg Gate 286 

Owen, John 300 

Oxford 303 

P^STUM 168 

Paisley Abbey < 317 

Palace of Berlin 31 

Palatine Hill 170 

Palermo 151 

Pantheon, Rome 174 

Pantheon, Paris 222 

Parthenon. . 126, 128, 129, 297 

Paris 209 

Parnassus, Mt 138 

Pascal 222 

Pegnitz 70 

Peloponnesus 136 

Pentelicon , Mt 134 

Perugia 177 

Peter, the Great 87 

Pfalz 259 

Pfleiderer 42 

Phidias 129, 297 

Phillip of Hessen 55 

Philip of Macedon 105 

Philippi 123 

Philippopoli 105 

Phoenix Park 313 

Phoenix Tower 312 



340 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Picton 299 

Pierian Spring 139 

Pilatus, Mt 200 

Pinakothek 80 

Pincian Hill 170 

Piraeus 126, 135 

Pisa 183 

Pitti Palace 180 

Place de la Concorde 213 

Plantin 281 

Playfair 325 

Pliny 122, 165 

Plutarch 129 

Pnyx 130 

Pole....^ 289 

Pompeii 162 

Portrush 314 

Potsdam 35 

Pozzuoli 154 

Pragiie 91 

Procida 155 

Propylseum, Athens 128 

Propylaeum, Munich 79 

'Psyttalea 135 

PufFendorf 34 

Punshon 300 

Puteoli 154 

Racine 222 

Radetzky 95 

Ramazan 113 

Ramsaj^ Allan 326 

Raphael 91, 180 

Rapperschwj^l 198 

Ratisbon 75 

Ranch 35 

Red Horse Hotel 306 

Rembrandt 276 

Reuchlin 55, 75 

Reynolds 14, 15 

Rhegium 143 

Rheineck 243 

Rheinfels 250 

Rheinstein 251 

Rhine, The 238 

Rhine, Falls of 196 

Rhone Glacier 203 



Page. 

Rhone River 205 

Rhone Valley 204 

Richelieu 228 

Ridley 205 

Rigi.. 199 

Rizzio 329 

Robert College no, 116 

Rogers — quoted 182 

Roland Arch 240 

Roland Statues 22 

Rolle 207 

Rollin 222 

Roman Antiquities. .221, 296 

Rome 168 

Rosljm Castle 324 

Rotterdam 277 

Rosetta Stone 297 

Roumelia 103 

Rousseau 208, 222 

Rowton Moor 312 

Rubens 280 

Rudolph 1 67 

Rudolph II 95 

Rudolph of Hapsburg. . .255 

Rudersheim 257 

Rueil 234 

Rugby 308 

Ruskin — quoted 189 

Ryssel 45 

Sachs 74 

Sacred Way : 133 

Salamis 126, 127, 135 

Salonica 123 

Samothrace 122 

Santa Croce 183 

Sarto 90, 180 

Savonarola 55, 178, 180 

Scaliger 276 

Schaffhausen 196 

Scheveningen 277 

Schiller 82, 86, 100 

Schleiermacher 35 

Schliemann 121, 141 

Schnorr 77 

Schonbrunn 103 

Schonburg 251 



INDEX. 



341 



Page. 

Schreckhorn 200 

Scironian Cliffs 136 

Scone, Stone of 294 

Scott, Sir W. — quoted 321 

Scutari 118, 119 

Scylla 143 

Sedan 65 

Sennacherib 297 

Servia 105 

Sevres 234 

Seymour, Jane 303 

Shakespeare's Tomb 307 

Shalmaneser 297 

Sheridan 313 

Shottery 307 

Shultz 44 

Sicily 142 

Sigismund 195 

Silver Strand 320 

Sinzig 242 

Sistine Madonna 89 

Slough 301 

Smith, Adam 316, 328 

Smith, Captain John . . . .300 

Smithfield Martyrs 299 

Sobieski 87 

Sofia 105 

Sophocles 130 

Sorbonne 221 

Sorrento 160 

Southampton 18 

Speyer 55, 253 

Spires 253 

Sporades 126 

Sprague — quoted 8 

Stabise 165 

Staffa 319 

Stahleck 251 

Steinhauser 24 

Steinmeyer 42 

Steinthal 43 

Sterrenberg 248 

Stewart, Dugald 325, 328 

Stirling 322 

Stockholm 267 

Stoke Pogis 301 

Stolzenfels 247 



Page. 

Stoss 72, 74 

Strack 42 

Strasburgh Cathedral 256 

Stratford-on-Avon 306 

St. Cloud 234 

St. Columba 18 

St. Denis, Cathedral 233 

St. Dunstan 288 

St. Germain-en-Iyaye 234 

St. Goar 250 

St. Kilian 69 

St. lyaurence Church 72 

St. Mark's, Venice 188 

St. Martin Church 259 

St. Martino Convent 155 

St. Norbert 93 

St. Patrick 18 

St. Paul, 121, 122, 131, 138, 143 

St. Paul's Cathedral 299 

St. Peter's Church . . . 170, 172 

St. Sebald's Church 71 

St. Sepulcher's Church.. .300 

St. Sophia 108, 109, 173 

Suleiman 109 

Sultan at prayer 114 

Sunium Point 126 

Swift, Dean 313 

Sydenham Palace 299 

Syracuse 145 

Tam O'Shanter's Ride. 318 

Taormina 144 

Tasso 160 

Taylor, Bayard — quoted . . 85 

Tenedos 121 

Tell, William 201 

Tetzel 28 

Thasos 122 

Thessalonica, 123 

Thorwaldsen 201 , 264, 272 

Thrace 105 

Thrasymene 177 

Thuringian Forest 56 

Tiberius, Kmperor 157 

Tiryns 139 

Titian 89, iS<:> 

Titus, Arch of 171 



342 



INDEX, 



Page. 

Tower of London 295 

Trave 14 

Trent 193 

Trollhatta Falls 266 

Trosachs 319 

Troy 121 

Tuileries 213, 214 

Tycho Brahe 95 

Uetliberg 198 

Uffizi Palace 180 

Universities, German 39 

Unkel 242 

Upsala 270 

Ussher 313 

Utrecht 272 

Vahlen 43 

Valley of the Heavenly 

Rest 118 

Van Kyck 286 

Vardar Gate 125 

Vasco da Gama 192 

Vatican 170 

Venice 153, 186 

Verona 193 

Versailles 234 

Vesuvius 162 

Victor Hug-o's Tomb 222 

Vienna 97 

Vietro 168 

Vincennes 232 

Virgil's Tomb 154 

Viret 207 

Vischer 71 

Vitzenau 201 

Voigt 252 

Voltaire 222 

Vulcan 122 

Wagra^i 102 

Walderzee, Countess Von . 38 

Waldus 55 

Walhalla 75 



Page. 

Wallace Tower 318 

Wallenstein 95? 97 

Walter of the Vogelw^eid. 69 

Wartburg- 56 

Warwick Castle 308 

Waterloo 284 

Watson, Richard 300 

Watts, Isaac 300 

Weimar 82 

Weiss 40, 42 

Wellington 299, 313 

Wenceslaus 96 

Weser : . 19 

Wesley, John 300, 306 

Wesley, Susannah 300 

Westcott 293 

Westminster Abbey 293 

White Mountains 83, 97 

Wied 243 

Wieland 82 

Wiesinger 43 

Wilhelmshohe 64 

William, Emperor, 

31, 34, 36, 235 

William IV 303 

William, Prince 38 

Windsor Castle 301 

Wittenberg 48 

Wordsworth — quoted 152 

Worms 54 

Wurzburg- 68 

Wycliffe 55 

Xerxes 121, 135 

yungfrau 200 

ZlSKA 92 

Zoological Garden of 

Berlin 34 

Zug 190 

Zurich 197 

Zwinger 88 

Zwingli 197 



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